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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



(V 3 sy 

M4UD. 3L0i M. D. 



WOMAN AND DISEASE 



A COLLECTION OF 



FACTS FOR WOMEN. 



BY APPROVED AUTHORITIES THE STATEMENTS 

CONTAINED IN THIS BOOK 

ARE PROVED. 



" Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom, and with all thy getting 
get understanding." 

For wisdom promotes health and happiness, prevents the wedding of virtue with 
vice, and the conception of disease. 

One of the world's greatest needs is to better understand the laws of health and 
the causes of disease, for there are fixed laws which must be obeyed in order to in- 
sure health. Disobedience in these laws invariably causes disease and unhappiness. 

BY MAUDE MY HERROLD, M.D. 




■ 



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Kansas City, Mo. 
PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR. 

1896 













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THIS WORK IS DEDICATED TO WOMEN 

IN REMEMBRANCE OF FIVE OF EARTH'S HIGHEST TYPES: 

VASHTI, 

THAT GRAND QUEEN OF PERSIA, WHO FIRST DARED DEFY THE 

INJUSTICE AND TYRANNY OF A SENSUAL HUSBAND. 

ABIGAIL SMITH ADAMS, 

AN IDEAL MOTHER, IN WHOSE SUPERIOR BRAIN ORIGINATED THE 

AMERICAN DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, AN INDEPENDENCE WHICH 

ALL WISE WOMEN STILL LABOR TO ATTAIN. 

ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, 
SUSAN B. ANTHONY, and MATILDA JOSLYN GAGE; 

NOBLE, BRAVE AND TRUE, THEY HAVE LABORED LONG 

AND FAITHFULLY FOR THE EMANCIPATION OF 

ALL WOMEN FROM SOCIAL, RELIGIOUS 

AND POLITICAL OPPRESSION. 



PREFACE 



As the aggregation of earnest and fearless efforts is 
required in relieving and preventing unnecessary suffer- 
ing of the human family, no individual worker in that 
direction should cringe when the world criticises, be- 
cause criticism is inevitable whether the efforts are 
made to degrade or to benefit humanity; but the ulti- 
mate result of every individual influence, whether ex- 
erted for evil or for good, is to receive its just reward. 
If degeneracy of the mind causes disease and suffering, 
and evolution of the mind promotes health and happi- 
ness, then parents should make special efforts to teach 
the young to avoid evil and to acquire wisdom. 

Physicians may greatly aid humanity in acquiring a 
knowledge of the laws of health and the cause of dis- 
ease, by means of which disease may not only be avoided 
but annihilated. In order that this book may be an 
efficient aid to women, the best works concerning the 
subjects discussed have been studied and quoted from, 
and the author's statements are also verified by these 
quotations. This work, while in the manuscript form, 
was reviewed by some of the ablest critics ; it is now 
ready to begin its voyage upon the merciless ocean, to 
perish or to survive, as divine justice will determine. 

M. H. 



WOMAN AND DISEASE. 



CHAPTER I 

THE DIVINE MOTHER. 

Contents. — The Normal Development of the Human Race. — Ancient Concep- 
tion of the Deity. — A Kabbalistic Statement that where there is Unbalanced 
Force there is the Origin of Evil. — All Sacred Histories refer to the Divine 
Mother as well as to the Divine Father. — Humanity Capable of understanding 
that Three Distinct Persons constitute the Triune God. — Science proclaims the 
Existence of a Divine Trinity and the Law of the Triune Equality. — The 
Objective Nature Prevalent among the Lower Animals becomes an Objective 
Force in Man. — Truths concerning the Relations of the Divine Family to 
the Human Family. — Each Individual Physical Life normally develops into 
a Spiritual Life. — Objective Tyranny causes the Spirit of Resentment. — The 
Human Family first divided into Two Distinct Races, one following a Retro- 
grade Change, the other in the Line of Normal Evolution. — The Moral com- 
promising with the Immoral in Marriage. — Hamitic Creed. — Semitic Creed. — 
Japhetic Creed. — Every Human Being has the Power to accomplish a Special 
Work for the Advancement of Humanity. — God the Mother evolves the 
Spiritual Worlds. — Degraded Humanity must behold a Divine Image in Order 
to make Human Evolution Possible. — Scriptural History teaches that Humanity 
must Honor God the Mother as it Honors God the Father and God the Son. 

The normal development of the human race depends 
upon its intelligence of divine laws, which include phys- 
ical, moral and spiritual laws. In studying the laws of 
health and the cause of disease, researches lead back 
to the genesis of humanity, when the first human 



2 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

parents were created physically perfect; that is, were 
created with the higher nerve centres sufficiently com- 
plex to recognize the will of their divine Parents ; thus 
these animal minds became living souls. 

Biblical history relates that God said : " Let us make 
man in our image after our likeness," ' also that Adam 
and Eve were created in the image of God, male and 
female, and were named "man." According to the Kab- 
balah, or Qabalah," the sacred history of the Chaldeans 
and Hebrews, Elohim 3 said: "Let us make man in our 
image after our likeness." Mr. Macgregor Mathers, 
author of the Kabbalah Unveiled, says : " Xow for some 
reason or other best known to themselves, the trans- 
lators of the Bible have carefully crowded out of exist, 
ence and smothered up every reference to the fact that 
the Deity is both masculine and feminine. They have 
translated a feminine plural by a masculine singular 
in the case of the word ' Elohim.' They have, how- 
ever, left an inadvertent admission of their knowledge 
that it was plural in Gen. i. 26." 

How could man have been created in the image of 
God, male and female, unless God were male and 

1 Gen. i. 26. 

2 "The Kabbalah may be said to be the only really valuable resume of the 
most ancient religions." It is considered the key to the Bible. Air. Macgregor 
Mathers, a Chaldean and Hebrew scholar, and author of the Kabbalah Unveiled, 
says: " I wish particularly to direct the reader's attention to the stress laid by the 
Kabbalah on the feminine aspects of the Deity, and the shameful way in which any 
allusion to these has been suppressed in the ordinary translations of the Bible ; 
also the kabbalistical equality of male and female." 

The Kabbalah should be of interest to biblical students, for how can they under- 
stand the Bible if they are ignorant of the construction put upon it by the nation 
whose sacred book it formed ? Were the real and sublime philosophy of the Bible 
better known there would be few fanatics, sectarians, or egotists. 

3 Elohim, the Mother of Life. (See Kabbalah Unveiled, p. 22.) 



THE DIVINE MOTHER 3 

female ? " The most ancient conception of the Deity 
was that of an infinite paternal and maternal principle, 
pervading, creating" and sustaining all life." ' 

Yet on account of the undeveloped state of the human 
minds of the primitive races their languages consisted 
of very few words, one being or one w r ord representing 
many individuals or attributes. As the races progressed 
in intelligence they recognized the necessity of coining 
a sufficient number of words to express their ideas. 
Nevertheless, modern egotists still retain the earlier 
custom of the primitive races in order to annihilate 
feminine individuality and establish masculine individ- 
uality as a monopoly. In the Hebrew Bible the name 
of the Deity 2 consists of four letters, IHVH, a Tetra- 
grammaton, 3 meaning both male and female, 4 and also 
combining in its meaning the divine and the human 
family. In the Kabbalah the Tetragrammaton is repre- 
sented in the form of a cross, thus : 

1 

H H 

V 

Its true meaning comprehends all life, Father, Mother, 
Son, Daughter. In the Greek the Tetragrammaton is 
rendered as including the divine Father, the divine 
Mother, the divine Son and the Church (which Christ 

1 " Higher Possibilities of Life," by Lawrence Oliphant, p. 197. 

2 The name of the Deity which we call Jehovah is in the Hebrew a name of four 
letters, IHVH. "IHVH is usually rendered by Tetragrammaton, instead of by 
Jehovah." — Kabbalah Unveiled. The forms Javeh and Jah are sometimes used. 

3 Blessed is the people "whose God is Tetragrammaton. — Kabbalah Unveiled, 

P. 155- 

All the paths of the Tetragrammaton are mercy and truth. — Ibid, p. 183. 

It is better to trust Tetragrammaton than to put any confidence in princes. — Ibid, 
p. 208. 4 Ibid, p. 202. h Ibid, p. 72. 




4 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

established for the human family) as the Daughter or 
Bride. (See Rev. xxi., xxii.) 

" In the trigram V Christ the Son assumeth the 
symbols of his Father and of his Mother, and is called 
Doth, Da'th, Knowledge, since he is the testimony of 
them both." ( l 289) 

" Christ the Son becometh the heir of his Father and 
of his Mother, and by him is the Church cherished." ( ! 290) 

Let us not lose sight of the great kabbalistical idea 
that the trinity is always completed by, and finds its real- 
ization in, the quaternary; that is, IHV, 2 the trinity of 
the Father, Son and Mother, is completed by the qua- 
ternary IHVH of Father, Mother, Son and Bride (the 
Church or humanity). ( l 35) 

The Kabbalah also states that C 295) "where there is 
unbalanced force there is the origin of evil, and hence 
that which is not both male and female is called half a 
body. Now no blessing can rest upon an incomplete 
being." These statements are sufficient proofs of the 
teachings maintained throughout the Kabbalah ; namely, 
that from creation man and woman are coequal and 
coexistent, — perfectly equal one with the other. This 
fact the translators of the Bible have been at great pains 
to conceal, by carefully suppressing every reference to 
the feminine portion of the Deity, or by constantly 
translating feminine nouns as masculine ; and this is 
the work of the so-called religious men ( ! 335) who 
assume to have correctly translated the Bible from its 
original into the English language. 

1 Kabbalah, pp. 289, 290, 35, 295, 335. 

2 The trinity of the Tetragram means the trinity in unity. The Elohim is the 
name applied to the feminine part of Tetragrammaton. — Kabbalah Unveiled. 



THE DIVINE MOTHER 5 

In all sacred histories there are words which alone 
refer to the divine Mother, as there are certain words 
which alone refer to the divine Father. The Jews con- 
sidered the tabernacle the abode of the Shekinah ; the 
"Sheklnah" is a Hebrew term for the "divine Mother." 
Scholars have recognized the fact that the word " Shad- 
dai " in the Hebrew Bible is translated "the Almighty" 
in the English Bible; though indicating the femininity of 
God, it has been handed down to the different nations 
as a masculine Hebrew word: Wheresoever in the 
Hebrew Bible the word " Shaddai " occurs, when rightly 
understood it is to be applied to the divine Feminine. 
" The Almighty " occurs in the following passages in the 
Old Testament, which we would earnestly recommend 
our readers to study carefully and separately, remember- 
ing that they should substitute for " the Almighty " the 
words " the divine Feminine " ' or " the divine Mother." — 
Gen. xvii. i; xxviii.. 3 ; xxxv. 11; xliii. 14; xlviii. 3; xlix. 
25; Exod. vi. 3; Num. xxiv. 4; Ruth i. 20, 21; Job v. 
17; vi. 4, 14; viii. 3, 5; xi. 7; xiii. 3; xv. 25; xxi. 15, 
20; xxii. 3, 17, 23, 25, 26; xxiii. 16; xxiv. 1; xxvii. 2, 10, 
11, 13; xxix. 5; xxxi. 2, 35; xxxii. 8; xxxiii. 4; xxxiv. 
10, 12; xxxv. 13; xxxvii. 23; xl. 2; Ps. lxviii. 14; xci. 1; 
Isa. xiii. 6; Ezek. i. 24; Joel i. 15. 

In the Greek Testament the word " Pneuma," or 
" Holy Spirit," refers to the divine Mother in the fol- 
lowing references: Matt. iii. 16; xii. 18, 31, 32; xxviii. 
19; Mark i. 10; iii. 29; xiii. 11; Luke iii. 22; xii. 10, 12; 
John i. ^\ iii. 6, 8, 34; iv. 24; vii. 39; xiv. 17; xv. 26; 
xvi. 13; Acts i. 8, 16; ii. 3^ 38; v. 3, 32; vii. 51; ix. 

1 " The Higher Possibilities of Life," by Lawrence Oliphant, p. 448. 



6 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

31 : x. 38,45, 47; xv. 8, 28 28; Rom. viii. 2; xi. 16, 

23; xv. 30; 1 Cor. ii.; xi. 13, 14; iii. 16; xii. 4; 2 Cor. 
i 22; iii. 17; v. 5; Gal. iii. 14; v. 22; Eph. i. 13; iv. 
30; vi. 17; Philip iii. 3; 1 Thess. iv. 8; Heb. x. 15; 
James iv. 5; 1 John v. 6; Rev. xxii. 17. 

" Confusion and vagueness have arisen from the un- 
warrantable use which the English translators and 
divines have made of the term 'Holy Ghost' T:;t 
word * ghost' in its biblical sense has become inextri- 
cably interwoven with a dogma, and is unnecessarily 
interpolated in the place of 'pneuma,' or * spirit,' for 
the purpose of supporting that dogma. We therefore 
recommend our readers once and forever to expunge 
from their vocabulary the expression "ghost.' 

4 The Apostles' Creed may still be held as teaching 
nothing which is not, if rightly understood, absolutely 
and entirely true. It can be read thus: I believe in 
G::~ :::e F?.:::t: :-.:-_.\ :r. :he A'.rs.i^'r.r/ M::htr :: ':.-:.r-:_ 
and earth ; or I beheve in God the Father and God the 
Mother, makers of heaven and earth, and in the Christ 
their Son, who became incarnate to save the human 
family. He was crucified and buried by evil men; the 
third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended 
into heaven, to sit at the right hand of God the Father 
and God the Mother. From hence Christ shall come 
again to separate between those who reject and those 
who accept the way of salvation — Christ's way — which 
cleanses from the evils of this world and evolves the 
soul into the righteousness of the spiritual world." 

As the word "God" and the word "man" require 
three words, "father, mother" and "child," to express 



THE DIVINE MOTHER 7 

their true meaning, humanity is now capable of under- 
standing that it requires three distinct persons to con- 
stitute the triune God or the triune man, the divine 
family and the human family. Women have the same 
authority for claiming that the words " God " and "man " 
should invariably be rendered in the feminine gender as 
men have for invariably rendering these words mascu- 
line; either is false rendering. 

Reason, as well as intuition, teaches that if it is the 
duty of humanity to recognize a divine Father or a 
divine Son, it is equally necessary to recognize a divine 
Mother. If there is a divine Father there must be a 
divine Mother. If the Mother does not exist, neither 
does the Father or the Son ; one is impossible without 
the other two. " We hear much of the Father and Son, 
but we hear nothing of the Mother, in the ordinary 
religions of the day," (Kabbalah, p. 922,) although in an- 
cient languages the word meaning " God " is in the plural 
number and in the masculine and in the feminine gender. 
Not only history, legend and lore, but science pro- 
claims the existence of a divine Trinity and the law of 
the triune equality. Science has discovered that this 
law belongs not alone to the divine and the human 
family, but to the animal and vegetable families, each of 
which consists of parents and offspring. Triune equal- 
ity is indispensable to the normal evolution of all life. 
The human family cannot afford to ignore this truth, 
which has been preserved by different individual nations 
up to the present time. It has existed throughout 
all ages ; it is one of the fundamental laws of evolution 
which recognizes the individual rights of the child and 



_ : WOMAN AND BIS 1.1 

the moth -.: .:- ::ul :: :.: : — :: :he izrhtr The en Tire 
human family should nc ~~" : e : :.".: :-. : .- :■£ re: ; rririr-T' S-; 
:. t ] I ether equal with G: : r:e Earner 

A:::r: i:::e :. :::r::£ irisrer: Adam-man ~".:~ rine Ens: 
human being to disebey rri= .;. :■ — : "".. ::e :: err - 
vine authoriry :: \- riee near e: rre iarei'y r": bera:: 
hb reign. ::' Tyranny :y r:n::ri::e zvt ; :ir.t fr 
to woman, 3 and 'diet;.:./.. "err her rfe-~rrb rreri be 
Eve resented such audacity as her daughters have e - - : 
since resented ii though ::.::•:::::::;:-:::: :::;- 
Festt : in different ways 

It may . : : — .::.--. r .: : r" -.- :r.~ : re :. : : :: : e rrire 
irerrrr i= _ : :: ana miry ::rer= have since reierr 
wh e :: - r:r - ri :: g :. e : e :: Job said : A - 1 : now the bea- \ s 

; thev shall teach thee, and the fowls of the air and 
: hey shall tell ther : . : - criptural history says that Eve 
..■/... :.-.: rage fr :: r:arir serpen: r - . :: . 

:harrr~ :y mair: r:e :r rgh: An::: ::::: - a: re ::; ; ::. 
Butt after a time Adam and "that old serpent""* united 
their rr~~er :: :rirg ::::: -. ::: rcrir: r r-:rr: ":::::: 
.-_ :.am-man had named woman. 

Sine brer, r : :: .: has e: : c — r : : ever: - : :: r An: ::: 
:::: :e :..-::..: -are : ere ~r£e ne :b;ecrive 

...::. .7 s: yrevaie : - :/.- .r~a: rrrr.- : - ; : ;:: — 

an objective : : : ' : - in man, by which he attempts to rule 
and subdue " r:r ::.-. rrs: eignreen :errrre~ 

me:: :.::- ve: :ea:ri::e a- ae:rrine bre ::::::': :::::- 
rrr.nmem :: Pari mai::: are reczraea in bae Ergcr:: 

.-_- I .-. Site shall :>t : e .. t : " ' :...: : : - : ; : " " : 

and they shall "be : i e .--.:. : : " hub? 



THE DIVINE MOTHER 9 

Bible, assuming that Paul was inspired when he uttered 
such absurdities as ' Wives, submit yourselves unto 
your own husbands as unto the Lord ; for the husband 
is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of 
the Church ; and he is the Saviour of the body. There- 
fore as the Church is subject unto Christ, so let the 
wives be to their own husbands in everything." " And 
the wife see that she reverence her husband." ' " Let 
the woman learn in silence with all subjection ; but I 
suffer not a woman to teach nor to usurp authority 
over the man, but to be in silence." ' 2 

Christ did not teach such doctrine, neither should 
such false teachings be imposed upon humanity as 
divinely inspired words. Through Christ's divine 
teaching the natures of the divine Father and the 
divine Mother are being revealed to humanity. 

It was the divine Mother nature that spoke through 
Christ when he called the little children to him; when 
he refused to condemn the fallen woman, the helpless 
victim of sensual men ; and when he in pity and tender- 
ness said: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would 
I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen 
gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would 
not! " — Matt, xxiii. t>7- "And when he was come near 
he beheld the city, and wept over it." — Luke xix. 41. 

" It was this tenderness which evoked a response from 
the hearts of women such as no prophet or teacher had 
ever evoked before, and prompted Christ in the moment 
of his supreme agony to utter these sublime words : 
' Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.' ' 

1 Eph. v. 22, 23-33. 2 1. Tim. ii. n, 12. 




10 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

The divine Mother is ever willing to comfort the 
suffering and teach wisdom to all. The wise are ever 
desirous of learning wisdom. The less wise become 
desirous of wisdom only through suffering. As every 
human being sins more or less, so must every human 
being suffer more or less, according to just laws. 

Woman has progressed faster in wisdom than man, 
and has more nearly reached the spiritual image of the 
divine Mother, after whose likeness Eve was made. 
Suffering will yet cause men to earnestly desire wisdom 
to evolve into the spiritual image of the divine Father, 
after whose likeness Adam was made. 

Truths concerning the relations of the divine Family 
to the human family are recognized as rapidly as human 
intelligence advances in wisdom. Humanity is compre- 
hending the necessity of the human trinity acknowl- 
edging the divine Trinity. Christ says to every human 
being, " Ye must be born again," affirming that a new 
birth — a spiritual birth — is absolutely necessary to 
evolve a human mind sufficiently spiritual to enter the 
kingdom of heaven ; the Mother God ' can teach every 
member of the human family the wisdom that will make 
them free and capable of recognizing the divine law of 
their being ; that each human life can evolve only in a 
direct relation with the divine Father or in a direct rela- 
tion with the divine Mother. 

According to the exact laws of the physical world, each 
offspring develops into the physical image of its father 
or its mother, as each individual physical life must nor- 
mally develop in order to evolve into a spiritual life. 

1 Many clergymen of different churches teach that the Holy Spirit is masculine, 
although the divine name is rendered feminine in the languages in which it was 
first written — Chaldee, Hebrew, and Greek. 



THE DIVINE MOTHER 



I I 



Failure to recognize the equality of the two sexes and 
their normal relations has been the cause of human de- 
generacy and disease. Men have ruled by physical force ; 
women have ruled by strategy. The rule of man alone 
is called patriarchal government; the rule of woman 
alone is called matriarchal government. The rule of 
either produces an abnormal condition of the human 
family, from which arise false interpretations of divine 
laws. 

When one being or one sex rules another, the one 
in authority tends to become egotistical and tyrannical, 
and the governed become resentful, as well as degraded. 
Their offspring, because of their helplessness, are the 
greatest sufferers. Biblical history relates that Cain, the 
first child born to Adam and Eve, inherited the spirit of 
an egotist and a tyrant, which caused him to murder 
his brother Abel. Cain afterwards became a wanderer, 
and one of his descendants, a murderer also, was the first 
polygamist. Thus with Adam and Lamach originated a 
race of egotists and sensualists, known as the " sons and 
daughters of men." 

The spirit of resentment, resulting in murder, Cain 
must have inherited from his mother, Eve, as he also 
inherited the spirit of egotism and tyranny from his 
father, Adam. Tyrants invariably excite the spirit of 
resentment in their slaves, so long as the slaves possess 
any intelligence. 

A decided change seems to have occurred in the lives 
of Adam and Eve after witnessing the result of their evil 
influence upon their children ; for of Enoch, a descendant 
of their third son, Seth, born to them after this terrible 



12 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

experience, history records that he " walked with God " ; 
that is, he was obedient to God's laws. One of Enoch's 
descendants, whose name also was Lamach, was the father 
of Xoah, who, according- to divine instruction, built the 
ark. In time those who obeyed divine laws were named 
"the sons and daughters of God." 

Thus the human family was first divided into two 
distinct races; one following in the line of retrograde 
change, the other in the line of normal evolution. 

History records that these first two races did not re- 
main distinct; the moral compromised with the immoral 
race by marriage, and, as it invariably occurs, the union of 
virtue with vice proved disastrous to the better, and with- 
out benefit to the degraded element. By the association 
and amalgamation of these first two races, the entire 
human family became so evil that God repented the crea- 
tion of man. (Gen. iv. 

The human race was, therefore, destroyed by a flood 
which covered the face of the earth, and of this great 
family only eight human beings survived : father, mother, 
three sons and three daughters-in-law, who were saved 
by obeying God's directions. (Gen. vii., viii.) These 
sons and daughters became the ancestors of three dis- 
tinct races, which were for ages designated as Hamitic, 
Semitic, and Japhetic races. 

A? these three races originated from the union of the 
two primary types, they had equal opportunities for prog- 
ress and civilization. Their separation seems to have 
been caused by originating different creeds or beliefs. 

1 This distinction, it should be remembered, is sociologic, not ethnographic. Only 
i few years ago these names were applied to the races of humanity, but modern 



THE DIVINE MOTHER 1 3 

Thus according to biblical genealogy all human beings 
now in existence are descended from these first three 
families. (Gen. ix. 18.) If so, no royal blood or royal 
human family can truly exist. 

Anathemas and divine blessings fall equally upon all, 
accordingly as they have resisted divine laws or have 
obeyed them. Each primary creed tended to produce 
certain general characteristics that are inherent in each 
race. 

The people of the Hamitic type respect neither the 
divine nor the human. The typical Hamitic man lives 
solely for sensual gratification, which degrades him below 
the level of the brute creation, and renders him a veritable 
savage. The Hamitic woman cares nothing for man, 
except as he can contribute means for her support and 
ease. She is willing to cater to man's low, immoral 
nature so long as he can give financial compensation. 
When he fails to do so she becomes still more degraded 
by promiscuous soliciting, to reap a greater financial 
harvest ; she does not care to become a legal wife, in fact 
she prefers not to be, unless she can by so doing secure 
greater financial compensation than she can gain in her 
capacity as a mistress of one or many. She resents man's 
tyranny by alluring him to destruction. 

This type of women submits, when compelled by cir- 
cumstances, to maternal suffering and disease, but cares 
not to investigate the cause and effect of their degraded 
condition. It is the belief of this people that human life, 
with its joys and sorrows, ends with this life. 

investigations have resulted in various and somewhat confusing classifications. In 
nH classifications, however, the Semitic family is retained as a distinct type. Bib- 
lical history for the greater part concerns this family. 



14 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

The Semitic race, according to biblical history, first 
worshipped God the Father, and gradually evolved into 
believing in God the Son. The Semitic man poses before 
the world as "the divinely appointed head and ruler of 
the family." He believes the Semitic race of men to be 
God's chosen people, through whom a royal line of human 
beings shall be continued through the ages, to subdue and 
rule all other nations of the earth, although as yet these 
prophecies are not fulfilled. He still fully believes that 
the word of God should be interpreted as meaning the 
Semitic man as the lion of Judah shall rule the world. 

Free humanity as thoroughly believes this race of men 
will share the same fate as the elect of other races, who 
affirm themselves alone to be God's chosen people. 

The Bible teaches that God is no respecter of persons ; 
and Christ said, " Except ye become as little children 
ye cannot enter the kingdom of heaven." Undoubtedly 
egotism and tyranny are the objective forces used in 
degrading humanity. 

The Semitic type of woman slavishly submits to the 
sufferings of maternity and its accompanying diseases. 
She dares not question if such suffering be necessary and 
unavoidable ; she has been taught by " their patriarchs " 
that all women must pay the penalty of Eve's sins by the 
agonies of maternity, and only by such suffering can they 
appease the wrath of God, in whose image their fathers, 
brothers, husbands and sons alone were created. 

In the theology of the Semitic race there has gradu- 
ally been systemized a sentiment in effect that, were it 
not for the convenience and comfort of these human 
lords, woman would not have been allowed to exist. 



THE DIVINE MOTHER I 5 

The price she pays for continued existence is almost 
absolute submission to man ; yet for this price she hopes 
to purchase financial support and gain heaven by her 
sacrifice. 

The typical Semitic woman also submits to man's 
authority because she considers it her religious duty, 
supposing man to have been created superior to woman, 
and a mediator between her and God. 

In order to please her assumed lord and master, her 
greatest desire is to be physically developed, even though 
mentally annihilated. She considers it her greatest honor 
to be a wife, even if she knows that her husband's at- 
tention and affections are habitually squandered upon 
immoral women. 

Not to be a mother is a disgrace she can scarcely en- 
dure, although her husband is a sensualist, dissipated and 
diseased. Regardless of this degraded status, she prefers 
to be a mother of many children and willingly obedient 
to her husband's every wish ; she considers it an honor 
that "he" thinks for her, rules her and "supports" her; 
if he fails to keep her in ease and comfort, she is willing 
to act in the capacity of a servant, if he will but acknowl- 
edge her before the world as his wife. 

The Japhetic race was the last to give to the world its 
sacred creed; this last and best is as much in advance 
of the Semitic creed of sociology as the Semitic is in 
advance of the Hamitic savagery. 

This race recognizes the fundamental teachings of 
Christ : that the divine Trinity and the human trinity 
include Father, Mother and Child: that the word "God" 
and the word " man " in the beginning included both male 



:: WOMAN" AND DISEASE 

intelligent to construct a language suited to its more 
complex ideas. 

The true woman of this race recognizes the true man 
as her equal. She believes that husband and wife should 
be equal morally, mentally and spiritually, and, unless 
morally equal, no marriage should occur. Just laws will 
not sanction the propagation of morally diseased children. 

She believes that even* human being has the power 
: . : . : : ziplish a special work for the advancement of 
hunianity; that men, women and children can, of their 
own free will, choose to which of these three sociological 
races they will belong, as they have the power within 
themselves to retrograde or progress, and that only the 
egotists claim a certain church to be God s chosen people, 
or that Gods blessing belongs to one sex alone. She 
also comprehends that intense maternal suffering, with its 
accompanying disease, is both unnecessary and degrad- 
ing; that a knowledge of the cause and effects of disease 
should be thoroughly studied, in order to prevent un- 
necessary suffering. 

This progressive race believes that God the Father 
controls the evolution of material worlds ; that he is 
the generous giver of temporal blessings, and that he 
demonstrates scientific laws by physical forces. 

God the Mother controls the evolution of spiritual 
lives ; the generous giver of spiritual blessings, the true 
interpreter of spiritual laws, 1 and the spiritual comforter. 

"Christ said: '-The Holy Spirit will teach you all things and bring all things 
- ■ _: remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." John xiv. 26. 
" For the Holy Spirit shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.'' 
L 12 



THE DIVINE MOTHER IJ 

The special work of God the Son was to apprise the 
human family of its relation to the divine Family, and 
establish the church as a school. This school, or church, 
of Christ's belongs to the entire human race. 

Christ endured the most intense suffering of mind 
and body, submitting to severest cruelties without retali- 
ation, yet nobly resisting every temptation, and living 
a perfect human life, by which he became a perfect 
human model and mediator between the divine and hu- 
man families, — a prince of peace, illustrating to human- 
ity how to live. 

According to scriptural history and reason, degraded 
humanity must behold a divine image in order to make 
human evolution possible ; therefore the Father and 
Mother God decreed that their only Son should dwell 
for a time upon the earth as a human model. In order 
to have a human model, a human body must be formed. 
From among the purest and truest of earth's sons and 
daughters were chosen Joseph and Mary, to become 
the human parents x for this divine Child. 

1 It is recorded in the Gospel of Luke, ii. 48, the human mother speaking to her 
divine Son concerning his human father, said: "Behold, thy father and I have 
sought thee sorrowing." Ever since Christ's incarnation intelligent Christian peo- 
ple have believed that Joseph was Christ's human father as Mary was Christ's 
human mother; that human parents were selected merely to incarnate the divine 
Child. 

Christ said: "Except ye are born of water and of the Spirit, ye cannot enter 
the kingdom of heaven. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which 
is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born 
again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but 
thou canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth : so is everyone that 
is born of the Spirit " — the Mother God. John iii. 5-8. 

Christ also said: "All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men; 
but the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit shall not be forgiven unto men. And 
whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but 
whosoever speaketh against the Holy Spirit it shall not be forgiven him, neither in 
this world, neither in the world to come." Matt. xii. 31, 32. 



l8 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

After being divinely informed, the human mother re- 
ceived of the divine Mother the spirit of the divine 
Child, to teach human parents an ideal parentage and 
human children an ideal childhood. 

Later, in adult life, Christ establishes the church as 
a school, to teach the great truth which he alone knew; 
that those who were born only of the flesh would be 
only carnally minded ; that in order to become wise a 
spiritual birth is necessary. 

Before Christ came to the earth children were cruelly 
treated, 1 and considered of little worth; but the Child- 
God changed a childhood of sorrow into one of joy 
and appreciation. Today the world is beginning to 
recognize the blessing of the children's Christian en- 
deavor. 2 Before Christ comes to the earth again, as 
he has promised, the human mother must be emanci- 
pated from the slavery of sensuality and disease ; scrip- 
tural history, as well as reason, surely teaches that 
humanity must honor God the Mother as it honors 
God the Father and God the Son. 3 



1 The Romans up to a late period of the empire put all deformed and imperfectly 
developed children to death within a short time after birth. Even at the present 
time the destruction of female children is prevalent in many parts of the world. In 
the more populous parts of China and in Farther India the custom is a common one. 

2 Christ said : " Take heed that you despise not one of these little ones; for I 
say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father 
which is in heaven." — Matt, xviii. 10. (See also xix. 14.) 

3 " In the days of King Messiach there shall be no need that one should teach 
another; for that one Spirit (God the Mother) who in herself includeth all spirits, 
knoweth all wisdom and understanding, counsel and might, and is the Spirit of 
science and of the fear of the Lord; because she is the Spirit comprehending all 
spirits. 

" In that day Elohim (the Mother God) shall be exalted, — she the Spirit of Life 
through whom in process of time the sons of David hope to know wisdom." — Kab- 
balah Unveiled. 



CHAPTER II 

EVOLUTION OF THE HUMAN MIND 

Contents. — Each Individual manifests Life according to the Complexity of its 
Nervous System. — The Will the Highest Power of the Animal Brain. — Judg- 
ment the Special Power to aid in the Development of the Spiritual Brain. — The 
Spiritual Powers of every Human Being are evolved by the Influence of Divine 
Powers. — Freedom of Will and Judgment is given to every Human Being. — 
Every Evolution of the Earth's Structure Advances all Life existing upon the 
Earth. — Wisdom should control the Intellect. — The Nervous System is the 
Special Physical Machinery used in developing all Animal Life. — Normally, all 
Life evolves. 

From scriptural and scientific authorities we learn 
that vegetable and animal life originated and is sus- 
tained by the breath of life which pervades all space 
and emanates from two life-giving principles, male and 
female, which humanity calls God. 

Scientific research has discovered that each indi- 
vidual life manifests the life it receives according to 
the complexity of its nervous system ; that it also has 
the power to continue developing into a condition in 
which it will be capable of comprehending its divine 
origin and the divine laws by which each life becomes 
a living soul, made in the image of God ; that every 
human being is endowed with inherent will and judg- 
ment, by which all the other powers of the mind are 
developed. 1 By the exercise of the will each individ- 
ual mind accomplishes deeds of good or evil, works of 

1 " It is an almost universal belief among steamship pilots, locomotive engineers, 
and other men who are constantly brought into contact with danger, that courage is 
acquired, but that good judgment is born in a man." 

19 




20 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

error or of truth, and by careful judgment perils are 
avoided and wrong distinguished from right. The will 
is the highest power of the animal brain, — the cerebel- 
lum ; judgment is a special power of the spiritual brain, 
— the cerebrum. Normally, the mind cultivates the will 
and judgment, and by these two inherent powers recog- 
nizes the laws by which physical bodies are evolved 
and kept in motion. All living bodies are made up 
of molecules separated from each other by distances 
greater than their supposed dimensions. Visible bodies 
apparently at rest are made of parts, each of which is 
moving with the velocity of a cannon-ball, and yet never 
departing to a visible extent from its mean place. 

The subtle, imponderable, and eminently elastic fluid 
called ether, which is distributed through the entire uni- 
verse, pervading the mass of all bodies, the densest and 
most opaque as well as the lightest and most trans- 
parent, is composed of atoms, and not only do the atoms 
of bodies communicate motion to the atoms of the 
ether, but the latter can impart it to the former ; thus 
the atoms of bodies are at once the source and recipi- 
ents of motion. 1 

The finite mind gains wisdom by a gradual process. 
As the human family evolves in wisdom its members 

1 Motion of the atoms in the molecules of the brain develop thought correspond- 
ing to the complexity of the nervous system of that body to which the motion is 
imparted. Energy or motion conveyed to the molecules in the brain cells cause the 
evolution of ideas which are manifested through the nervous system in various v. 
producing impressions upon the body to which the nervous system belongs or upon 
other bodies: as, for example, the action of an objective mind upon a subjective 
mind. The mental force produced in the brain by the will of the hypnotizer may 
be conveyed to any part of the nervous system of the hypnotized subject, controlling 
the subject's will, words and actions. In order that this maybe done, the subjective 
mind is passive ; that is, very little thought evolving in the brain. 



EVOLUTION OF THE HUMAN MIND 21 

more clearly recognize their near relation to the divine 
Family. Humanity is gradually learning that interven- 
ing priests or spirits, as message-bearers, are not neces- 
sary in order that human beings may communicate 
with the divine, but that each soul has the power of 
direct communication with the divine Trinity as one 
human mind has power to communicate with another 
mind at great distances, 1 simply by the vibrations of an 
ethereal medium that pervades all space. 

>" The stupendous energy of atomic vibratory force is 
as incomprehensible as the atomic abyss is unfathom- 
able, as the interstellar space is immeasurable." Never- 
theless, there are exact laws concerning them which are 
as comprehensible as are these laws in bodies. 

Professor Helmholz says : " The electricity which per- 
meates all matter and is like an envelope to all its atoms, 
is itself apparently composed of atoms, only infinitely 
finer than any others." The finer atoms of electricity 
are not encrusted with those coarser visible particles 
of which each individual physical body is composed. 
The relation of these varieties of atoms and their 
force of action upon each other also explains to a 
great extent the secret of that magnetic attraction and 
repulsion of visible bodies, such as sympathy or antip- 
athy, and all other variety of emotions ; therefore it is 

1 It must be remembered that the thought-impulse acting on the brain and nerve 
matter is just as much an exhibition of an unseen force as the assumed vibrations 
that proceed from the transmitter of the telephone to the receiver. Neither thought- 
impulse nor sensation is instantaneous; but as in the case of heat, or light, or elec- 
tricity, no human being has yet been able to tell the nature or essence of this force. 
Notwithstanding all this, however, the constants, coefficients, and functions of the 
thought impulse are real magnitudes. The essence of the thing itself may not be 
known, but its laws are beginning to stand out before the irresistible attacks of 
some so-called investigators. 



— — 






2 2 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

through the ethereal medium that the human mind not 
only communicirts with other human minds, but with 
:he iivir.r Fir;.:'.y. 

Knowledge is valuable only as it harmonizes with 
wisdom ; if evil thoughts and desires are continued, the 
power of the physical brain will control the being, 
causing both the mind and the body to degenerate. In 
order that the divine will may be incarnate in the hu- 
man, the latter must make an effort to recognize the 
divine, as only such effort aids in comprehending the 
laws that develop human health and happiness. 

The spiritual life of every human being is evolved 
e influence. If the human mind develops the 
ain more than the spiritual brain, the mind 
: inferior, for it is without wisdom. 

When the human soul develops under the influence 
of divine power, it becomes more and more noble, until 
it is fitted for heaven, where it will still continue to 
evolve. Thus every human being possesses two funda- 
mental powers ; namely, the will and the judgment ; and 
these, it is evident, should be constantly cultivated; 
:;::::: r:::r::::e :h:= lit rhtst inhere::: :::~--:s ire ^~- v -" 
in order to aid in evolving into spiritual conditions, and 
to promote physical growth in normal directions. Free- 
dom of will and judgment being divinely inherent in 
every human soul, each has the privilege and power to 
:;:;:^r btrwtrr. <: :c ir.i evil: :hese r-iwtrs txtrzti ir. 
either line produce an unlimited influence in the one 
direction or the other. 

When humanity recognizes the Holy Spirit as the 
and asks of her wisdom and guidance, 



■>• r *.- - „ ~ 



EVOLUTION OF THE HUMAN MIND 



23 



and asks of the Father God temporal blessings, 1 there 
is an evolution of the soul's wisdom. Its purity and 
power, happiness and peace, and all necessary temporal 
blessings are given in abundance to those who ask in 
faith, believing they shall receive. 

So long as the human soul chooses to depend upon 
the human knowledge, the result is invariable confusion 
and unhappiness. The world is realizing that the wisest 
provisions are made for the good of every living thing; 
that for every human being the earth and its benefits 
are created, and that all are free to partake of these 
blessings. 

As in the divine Family the Father, Mother, and Son 
are equally reverenced, so it must have been divinely 
appointed that the individuality of the human family 
should be equally respected, as in the future they will 
be. Unfortunately, however, the divine arrangements for 
the equality of its members have been selfishly ignored 
through the ages, resulting in the degradation and dis- 
ease of the entire human family. 

When the human mind comprehends the truth that 
the members of the human family should be equal, as 
the members of the divine Family are, tyranny and 
disease will cease to exist. 

If every evolution of the earth's structure is for the 
advancement and improvement of all life existing upon 
the earth, then whether the human will desires to profit 
by it or not, every one can profit by these blessings 



1 As Christ taught the world to say, "Our Father who art in heaven, give us 
this day our daily bread," and as the world is also learning from Christ's teaching to 
say, " Our Mother who art in heaven, give us thy holy spirit to teach us wisdom." 



24 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

when willing to develop both body and soul according 
to the divine law of evolution. 

If the will is that power of the mind which compels 
the being to do evil or to do good, as suggested by the 
individual mind, or by the objective mind of another, 
then the normal energies of the mind and body should 
be cultivated and thoroughly educated, in order that the 
will and judgment may become strong to accomplish 
noble results. 

Educated will and judgment should control the action 
of the body and mind ; and as the intellect includes 
all the acquired powers of the human mind, therefore 
the intellect should be controlled by wisdom in order 
to accomplish all that is possible for a human soul to 
accomplish. 

The divine Parents have given the human soul the 
free and independent use of the power of will and judg- 
ment, and also a promise that it shall be responsible 
for the use of these powers, as the soul shall be justly 
rewarded or condemned according to the efforts made 
to acquire divine wisdom, — that wisdom by which the 
human mind is transformed into a spiritual mind, — that 
new birth so necessary to happiness. 

In order that the human mind may accomplish all that 
is possible to accomplish by these independent powers, 
namely, the will and the judgment, a knowledge of their 
normal action in controlling both body and mind must 
be acquired. 



CHAPTER III 

THE HUMAN SOUL 

Contents. — Children are born with Will and Judgment primarily developed, yet 
capable of being rapidly and normally developed by acquired Knowledge and 
Wisdom. — Various Operations of the Mind may be reduced to those distinguish- 
ing, retaining, reproducing or creating New Ideas. — Abnormal Condition of the 

> Body invariably interferes with Normal Mental Action. — Children inherit Ten- 
dencies to develop in the Line of their Ancestors. — Even Civilized People, from 
Disease, Overwork, or Excess, degenerate. — The Will Power acting on the Brain 
Centres leaves Impressions upon the Body, and these as a Reflex leave Impres- 
sions upon the Brain. — Expressions of Will and Judgment are stimulated by 
various Impressions from External Influences brought to the Nerve Centres. — 
Under the Control of the Will, Actions are voluntary. — Judgment should regu- 
late the Actions of both Body and Mind. — The Finest Intellect possesses the 
Healthiest Moral and Religious Views. — The Complexity of the Nervous System 
determines the Species to which it belongs. — Each Living Organism is receiving 
Vitality or Life from the Source of all Life, and in return manifests the Power 
through the Nervous System as an Individual Life. — Each Living Organism can 
use this Power for Good or Evil, yet for its Use each Human Being is held Re- 
sponsible. — Immoral Habits of Life prevent the Higher Development of the 
Mind and the Evolution of the Spiritual Life. — An Intellectual, Physical, Moral, 
and Religious Development is the Inherent Right of Every Human Being. — 
Individual Efforts are necessary in such Development. — The Spiritual Self should 
rule the Physical Body. 

The human soul naturally possesses will, judgment 
and intellect ; these attributes, however, vary greatly at 
different periods of life ; a child having been born with 
a primarily developed will and judgment inherited from 
parents, under favorable conditions and by the aid of 
external surroundings will develop the powers of the 
mind to form an individual intellect, capable of develop- 
ing into higher conditions of life. 

Children are not born with knowledge ; but they are 
born with will and judgment capable of rapidly acquir- 



26 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

ing knowledge and wisdom. Yet the normal develop- 
ment of the will, judgment, and intellect depends to 
great extent upon the external influences and surround- 
ings, as well as inheritance. 1 

A child's nervous phenomena are first those of bodily 
feeling and sensations, rather than intellect ; the animal 
instinct predominates. Feeling, seeing, and hearing are 
developed by exercising these powers, and the function 
of memory develops with them. 

Brain centres begin to develop first, by mental stimuli 
inherited ; second, by external stimuli ; third, by inter- 
nal ideas evolved. First the will begins to develop; 
then the will excites the judgment, and the latter in turn 
controls the development of the intellect. The cells 
and connecting fibres are the machinery of the brain. 
In order that the mind may evolve it is necessary that 
the brain cells in which ideas are stored, and the fibres 
by which they communicate, should be normal. " The 
various operations of the mind may be reduced to 
those of distinguishing, retaining, reproducing, or creat- 
ing new ideas." 

Abnormal conditions of the body invariably interfere 
with normal mental action ; but normal conditions of 
the body aid materially in developing the mind. A 
child, the descendant of a line of ancestors mentally and 
morally superior, becomes a highly specialized being, 
with will and judgment of refined and complex nature. 

1 Sydney Smith once affirmed that " it takes three generations to make a gentle- 
man out of a clodhopper." He might better have said, " It takes three or even 
four generations to make a decent man out of a sensualist." This statement of the 
famous critic may be open to the charge of snobbishness, but it is nevertheless true. 
Inherited instincts cannot be put aside in a day, nor in a year, — not even in a life- 
time. Nothing short of the training of several generations will effect a complete 
re-formation of hereditary traits. 



THE HUMAN SOUL 2J 

Savage children become savage adults; the will and 
judgment of the savage are unlike those of civilized 
people ; as a rule their emotions are not under the con- 
trol of the will and judgment ; they are easily moved 
to joy, tears, terror, or rage. 1 Yet by normal influences 
of individuals and surroundings they can discipline the 
will power and the judgment to control the emotions, 
to develop a desire for truth and justice, and an ability to 
form the superior ideas that are cultivated by civilized 
races. When deprived of these necessary aids, a child 
or an adult degenerates into a savage. 

The brain convolutions of the savage resemble those 
of the ape rather than those of the complicated and 
convoluted brain of a civilized being whose soul has 
been highly developed. As children of civilized people 
inherit tendencies to develop in the line of their ances- 
tors, so do children of the savage inherit imperfect 
brains and evil tendencies ; yet if the children of either 
civilized or savage races should be surrounded by dif- 
ferent environment and educated in a manner the op- 
posite of that of their ancestors, they would in time 
more closely resemble their educators. 2 

Even civilized people who have inherited or acquired 
disease caused by excesses, degenerate, becoming like 
the savage, emotional and cruel ; their minds become 

1 The American Indians seem to have absolute control over their emotional na- 
tures, yet nevertheless when they indulge in their " ghost dance " they are very 
much under the control of their emotions. 

2 The truth of this statement becomes apparent in noting the two types of Hel- 
lenic civilization. Nothing could be more unlike than the types of which the 
Spartan and the Athenian were the representatives — the one intensely animal, the 
other as strongly intellectual. In each case, however, the differentiation from 
the original type was the result of strong will [power, continuing through many 
generations. 



28 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

inferior, and they prove unequal to the emergencies of 
life. Their organization is so enfeebled that every ordi- 
nal*}- illness disturbs the mind ; their ideas grow warped 
and eccentric ; they lose the sense of duty and right, 
and often become criminals or insane. Such qualities 
they bequeath to their descendants, and thus continue 
to degrade not only their own lives, but the lives of 
those who are so unfortunate as to be associated with 
them. 

The will power acting upon the brain centres as a 
stimulus, whether unconsciously or consciously, leaves 
its impression upon the bod)' and then as a reflex upon 
the brain, so that if the mind acts abnormally it has 
an abnormal effect upon the entire being. The same 
rule holds good in the influence of the body upon the 
mind. As the will and judgment are the primary 
developments of the human mind, their expressions are 
stimulated by the various impressions from external 
influences brought to the nerve centres or cells by 
conducting nerve fibres. The will and the judgment 
are the powers of the mind which put forth the energy, 
control the feelings, and develop the intellect. If the 
feelings are not under the control of the will the person 
becomes emotional, but under the control of the will the 
actions are voluntary. 

Judgment controlled by wisdom should regulate the 
actions both of body and mind. The will gives the 
power to act ; the judgment decides if the action should 
or should not occur. The judgment is evolved by the 
aid of healthy mental and physical exercise ; yet great 
differences and allowances are made according to indi- 



THE HUMAN SOUL 



29 



vidual opportunities, education and inheritance. If the 
judgment and will are defective the human mind be- 
comes abnormal ; but if both will and judgment have 
been cultivated and refined normally, each being kept 
in proper balance, they become the powers by which 
the highest intellect is developed. 

The intellect is the power which proves whether or 
not judgment has made the right decision. A superior 
intellect is the power developed by education in the 
best and broadest sense ; therefore the finest intellect 
possesses the healthiest moral and religious views. 

Reason, as well as science, teaches that divine intelli- 
gence evolves physical worlds as well as spiritual worlds ; 
that the more complex the nervous system the greater 
the ability the physical body possesses to manifest life. 
The complexity of the nervous system also determines 
the development of the physical organization and species 
to which it belongs. Each living organism is constantly 
receiving vitality or life from the Source of all life, and 
in return manifests this power through the nervous sys- 
tem as an individual life. Each living organism can use 
this power for good or for evil ; yet for its use each 
human being is held responsible. As every act of the 
body has a reflex action on the mind, so every action 
of the mind has a reflex influence upon the physical 
body. Immoral habits of life prevent the higher devel- 
opment of the mind, and also prevent the evolution of 
the soul. 

A normal physical, intellectual, moral, and religious 
development is the inherent right of every human being. 
The body and the mind should be supplied with the 



30 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

necessary material for growth ; the first requisites are 
pure blood and pure air. To these should be added suf- 
ficient nutritious food. Quite as essential, also, are peri- 
ods of rest and systematic exercise both of body and 
mind. During all seasons of the year sensible clothing 
should be worn ; the body and limbs kept free from 
constriction, and protected from dampness and extreme 
cold. 

Exercise should be taken even' day in the open air. 
The youth as well as the adult of both sexes should be- 
come interested in some profitable study, and become 
qualified for some special work, which will bring finan- 
cial compensation and also develop normally the mind. 
Allow no one to do your thinking or reading for you. 
If a pain or an ache occur, learn the cause and remove 
it as quickly as possible. Do not think it is more 
womanly to suffer and be silent when with a little 
effort the cause could be removed and with it the effect. 
As your real spiritual self occupies your physical body, 
by your will power you can aid in the construction of 
normal conditions. " Keep in mind an image of your- 
self in perfect health and in full strength and activity, 
and you keep the forces at work to make you so. In 
time the spiritual self will rule the physical body." 

The brain possesses various nerve centres which in- 
fluence their corresponding organs in the body; these 
special nerve centres are connected by nerve fibres 
which pass from the interior of the brain through the 
spinal cord and spinal nerves, and unite with the sym- 
pathetic system to supply the different organs of the 
body. Mental influences are conveyed from the brain 



THE HUMAN SOUL 



31 



to the different parts of the body, and sensations from 
different parts of the body to the brain, through the 
nervous system. 

The sympathetic system, with its numerous nerve 
ganglia, or small centres, and their nerve fibres, convey 
impressions from every part of the body to its corre- 
sponding nerve centre in the brain, by way of the 
spinal nerves and spinal cord ; and through the spinal 
system impressions are carried from the brain to the 
different parts of the body. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE NORMAL BODY.— THE NERVOUS SYSTEM 

Contents. — The Nervous System is recognized as the Chain that connects the Phy- 
sical Body with the Spiritual Body. — The Nervous System is the most Important 
System in the Body. — Study of the Normal Structure of the Body Necessary. — 
Nerve Force stored in Nerve Centres. — The Nervous System comprises the 
Cerebro-spinal and Sympathetic Systems. — The Development of the Mind cor- 
responds with its Ideas of Life and the Appreciation of its Surroundings. 

The nervous system is the special physical machinery 7 
used in developing the human mind, also in developing 
the mind in each lower form of life, 1 just as the mus- 
cular, digestive, and circulator} 7 systems are especially 
necessary in developing the physical body. 

The bod} 7 must be supplied with pure blood, rich in 
oxygen and all necessary food ingredients, in order that 
chemism may occur, by virtue of which substances are 

1 " Soul Life of Animals. Rev. Josiah Adams, rector of the Church of the 
Holy Spirit, Rondout, N. Y., has founded a new cult or study for the purpose of 
investigating animal biology. The object, briefly stated, is to determine whether or 
not the lower animals have souls. He avows his firm belief that they have (and it 
is a curious fact that John Wesley, founder of Methodism, is said to have held the 
same view). Other prominent people, among them Eugene Field, Henry Abbey, 
the author, and Eugene Glass, the editor of J The Dog Fancier,' belong to the 
society — the ' Bureau of Biophilism,' it is called — but do not commit themselves 
to the belief as does Mr. Adams, being merely curious investigators. The objects 
of the Bureau of Biophilism, as stated in its circular, are as follows : 

"I. To collect evidence that the lower animals may possess at least a showing 
of the same faculties that men possess. 

li 2. To circulate as widely as possible such evidences. 

" 3. To awake in the minds of as many people as can be reached, the questions r 

" May not the lower animal be immortal? 

" May not the entire sentient universe be immortal? 






THE NERVOUS SYSTEM 33 

quickly converted into the necessary food ingredients 
for the various cells of the body. Vital power evolved 
within each individual living body constitutes its elec- 
tricity, magnetism, or nerve power, — its very life. 

If oxygen taken in the body purines the blood, and 
the food ingredients are the tissue builders, so electric- 
ity taken into the body from the atmosphere and by 
means of various electrical apparatus, increases and de- 
velops individual vital force or power. Both body and 
mind require not only sufficient amount of rest, but 
exercise taken systematically. 

In studying the structure of the human body the 
nervous system is recognized as the chain that connects 
the physical with the spiritual ; therefore it becomes the 
most important system of the entire body ; yet the other 
systems are just as necessary to its development as the 
nervous system is to the development of the mind. 

Not only is the study of the normal body necessary 
to understand the laws of health, but a knowledge of 

" What argument goes to prove man's immortality which does not go to prove the 
immortality of other sentient beings? 

" 4. In the hope that the higher animals, through such considerations, may be- 
come more kind in their treatment of the lower animals. 

" The Bureau will attempt the attainment of these objects: 

" 1. Through observation and research. 

"2. Through the correspondence of its members and patrons. 

"3. Through publication. 

"4. Through lectures and symposium." — Human World, August, 1895. 

There are others who believe that every individual form of life that has ever ex- 
isted upon this planet still continues to exist in some other state; that they have 
continued to evolve after they have left the earth, to inhabit other worlds suited 
to their individual conditions, and that all of the lower forms of life will evolve 
until they become living souls. Astronomers have discovered that nebulae, stars and 
planets are being constantly evolved, and many millions are now in existence. May 
not the many stars be the " many mansions " or worlds being prepared for individ- 
ual life? 



34 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

the various abnormal conditions is essential : such, for 
instance, as derangement and displacement of various 
organs, the cause of these conditions, and their effects 
upon both body and mind. Such knowledge of normal 
and abnormal conditions gives superior advantage in 
taking systematic exercise, and greatly aids in develop- 
ing universal health. In studying the health of the 
body, a knowledge of its structure and normal position 
of the organs is the first requisite. 

In Plate I is represented the cerebro-spinal portion 
of the nervous system and various organs of the body. 
The cerebro-spinal system includes the cerebrum, the 
corpus callosum, the cerebellum, the pons Varolii, 
the medulla oblongata, olfactory ganglia, the cranial 
nerves which supply the face, and the pneumogastric 
nerves, which supply the throat, lungs and stomach. 
The organs of the body illustrated include those of 
the abdominal and pelvic cavities The -romach. the 
intestines, the spleen and the kidneys are contained 
in the former ; the rectum, uterus, vagina, ovaries, 
fallopian tubes and the bladder are contained in the 
latter. 

Before giving a general description of the organs of 
the body as represented in Plate I, the entire nervous 
system should be considered, inasmuch as it includes 
the cerebro-spinal and the sympathetic systems, which 
are represented in Plates I, II, and III. 

Each system is also divided into ganglia, or centres, 
and nerves, or cords. The centres are composed of 
gray cellular tissue, in which nerve force is stored, and 
from which it is afterwards evolved. The cords 



A . Cere 6 



3. Corpus 



Ca.//osum 




DJrtfociai 7 nerve 




C. CereAe/fic/rc 






F P/7eu???oy<3.sf/-/c 






/i. 3/aJc/er 






Cerebro-Spinal System. 



Plate L 



«3. O/S/e/fareJ^ 



C.Tuberck 



£. Pe/v/<?fi/exus 



A Joiafr'c //erise 




Semi lurta gargh'o* 
<tnd Jo/ar fr/e/. ccS 



Sympathetic Nervous System. 



Plate II. 




AO/facfory 6u,/£- 
B. PiYui'/ary dody 






ic //prve 










J. Uterus 
'. Set a tic ftes-ye 



Nervous System. 




Plate III. 



THE NERVOUS SYSTEM 35 

composed of white fibres arranged to form cord-like 
nerves, which conduct nerve force or impressions to and 
from all parts of the body and to the highest nerve 
centres, which are the cerebellum and the cerebrum. 

The sympathetic nerves are much smaller than the 
cerebro-spinal nerves. All the sympathetic ganglia have 
nerve fibres passing to and from them. The spinal cord 
is the source of a great many sympathetic fibres. The 
cerebro-spinal nerves and ganglia are closely connected 
with the fibres of the sympathetic nerves in nearly every 
part of their course. These ganglia have nerve fibres 
traversing them ; nerve or ganglionic corpuscles seem 
to give origin to these fibres, but there are other cor- 
puscles that apparently are free. 

" The large white fibres are especially characteristic 
of the cerebro-spinal nerves ; the smaller white fibres, 
notably of the sympathetic nerves. Yet in some cases 
there is no certainty whether the nerve fibres are de- 
rived from one system or the other ; they may be derived 
from either source. Both the cerebro-spinal and sympa- 
thetic nerves have the power of conducting, transferring, 
reflecting, increasing or controlling impressions made 
upon them, but their mode of conducting is modified by 
ganglia." ' This proves without a doubt the fact that 
they contain within their own substance the apparatus by 
which their motions are primarily governed. 

" It seems to be the general rule, at least in the higher 
animals which have both spinal and sympathetic nerves 

1 In many instances, possibly in all, the ganglia may be considered as supplemen- 
tal brains. They largely govern the involuntary motion and processes over which 
the will of the physical brain has little or no control. But the mind may be so 
educated as to be capable of controlling some of the actions of the physical body 
now termed involuntary. 



30 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

much developed, that the involuntary movements ex- 
ited by stimuli or irritation and conveyed through gan- 
glia are orderly, like natural movements, while those 
excited through ganglia are convulsive and disorderly." 
For example: pressure upon the nerves without the 
ganglia will cause disorderly movements which are 
sometimes, but incorrectly, described as " hysterical." ' 

All physiological processes must of necessity, either 
directly or through vaso-motor fibres which supply the 
blood-vessels, be under the influence of the sympathetic 
svstem. 

In the evolution of animal life, as me system after 
another is developed to the highest, which is the nerv- 
ous system, it becomes the most sensitive to the abnor- 
mal action of the different lower systems. Injuries to 
portions of the nervous centres, or pressure upon indi- 
vidual nerves, frequently result in defective nutrition of 
the parts supplied by the injured nerves. Thus an in- 
jury- to the spinal cord is sometimes followed by gan- 
grene or by localized necrosis in the paralyzed parts; 
this may, and commonly does, take place very gradually. 
Intense mental suffering or physical disturbances often 
cause convulsions. 

Evidence of the influence of the nervous system upon 
nutrition is furnished by those cases in which mental 



1 From the Greek word meaning the womb. Both the Greeks and the Romans 

believe i :La: :he nerv:u; ;-:i~er_:£ :: -v:~:.r. -vere iue :: a iisirferei ;:r. :::::- :: 
this organ. A m : iern science of diagnosticating has proved that irritation or 
pressure ur:n lie nerves, especiziiv :ie 57— r.-.:heric nerves :: r3.r-.bi3. :: :ie b: £7. 
causes reflex irritation of the various nerve centres of the brain; therefore it is not 
the uterus (or womb) alone that causes reflex nervous disturbances, but it is the 
irritating pressure of the other organs as well. 






THE NERVOUS SYSTEM $7 

anguish, caused by grief or severe neuralgia, causes the 
hair to become gray very rapidly, or the body to become 
extremely emaciated in a very short time. The devel- 
opment of the mind corresponds to its ideas of life and 
appreciation of its surroundings. It is quite true that a 
person can judge of the feelings of others only by those 
of which she herself is conscious, as in a sense uncon- 
sciousness limits knowledge. The wider the difference 
between individuals and their surroundings, the less 
capable is each of understanding the other. 



CHAPTER V 

THE NORMAL BODY.— THE RESPIRATORY SYSTEM 

Contents. — The Yital Power of each Individual Body operates according to Fixed 
Laws. — All Living Yegetable and Animal Bodies possess Respiratory, Diges- 
tive, Circulatory and Nervous Systems which vary in Complexity. — The Mind 
requires Mental Food and Exercise as the Body requires Physical Food and Ex- 
ercise. — Respiration includes two Processes: Inspiration and Expiration. — Oxy- 
gen deprived of its Electricity cannot support Life. 

The respiratory nerve centres of the brain and the 
respiratory organs of the body form a special system 
through which the vital elements of the atmosphere 
enter the body and act upon the protoplasmic material 
— the basis of all physical bodies. These chemic ac- 
tions convert protoplasm into various kinds of cells, 
to form the tissues of which all physical bodies are 
composed. The vital power of each individual body 
operates according to fixed laws to evolve normally the 
different systems of the body. It converts food into 
differentiated protoplasmic material, and the latter en- 
tering the circulatory system is carried to the various 
cells of the body, where it is again changed into special 
living tissue. Originally protoplasmic or physical ma- 
terials are gases, then liquids, semi-solids, and finally 
solid or living tissue, according to fixed laws of chemical 
and physical combination. All living vegetable and 
animal bodies possess respiratory, digestive, circulatory 
and nervous systems, which vary in complexity, and 
through which vital creative powers evolve different 
pnysical bodies and individual lives. 



THE RESPIRATORY SYSTEM 39 

We learn that normal conditions of the body are 
absolutely necessary to the highest physical and mental 
development ; that impure blood dulls the conscious- 
ness of right and wrong, and enfeebles both the body 
and mind ; so impure thoughts will cause the mind and 
body to act abnormally. The mind requires mental 
food and exercise as the body requires physical food 
and exercise. 

Next to the nervous system the respiratory system is 
of the greatest importance. Its normal action is abso- 
lutely necessary to the highest physical development, 
and is a great physical factor in developing the mind 
as well. The organs of respiration are the lungs, the 
muscles of the chest, and the diaphragm. Respiration 
includes two processes : inspiration and expiration. 

Inspiration is the act of filling the lungs with air, so 
as to distend their numerous air-cells, thus expanding 
the muscles between the ribs, the external muscles that 
cover the chest, and increase the circumference of the 
diaphragm — the muscular partition that separates the 
thoracic cavity from the abdominal cavity. The air 
taken into the lungs by inspiration contains oxygen, 
the essential element by which the blood is purified. 
The oxygen, by the well-known process of endosmosis, 
immediately passes through the thin walls of the air- 
cells of the lungs and unites chemically with the waste 
or effete hydro-carbons of blood, to form carbon dioxide, 
or carbonic acid gas. The latter, by exosmosis, enters 
into the air-cells of the lungs and is expelled in the 
process of expiration. 1 

1 This process is merely one of ordinary dialysis. Oxygen can readily pass one 
way; that is, from without to within, but not in an opposite direction. Carbon 



40 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

During expiration the air-cells, the muscles of the 
chest and the diaphragm are all contracted to force the 
impure air from the lungs. When pure air is taken 
into the lungs the electricity contained in the oxygen 
immediately passes over the nerve fibres and cords to 
all the nerve centres. Oxygen deprived of its electric- 
ity cannot support life. For normal respiration the 
clothing must be loose and light in weight. In stand- 
ing or walking, the weight of the body should rest 
upon the arches of the feet, the greater part of the 
weight pressing forward on the balls of the feet. The 
abdominal muscles should be kept in atonic contrac- 
tion to support the abdominal and pelvic organs, and 
the chest expanded to allow free respiration. This cor- 
rect position of the body inspires the mind with hope 
and courage to aid in the development of a pure and 
noble life. 

dioxide can readily pass outward, but not inward. This expedient is often employed 
in certain chemical analyses. Mixed matter containing both crystalloids and colloids 
are held in a bag made of parchment or skin, and the latter is suspended in a vessel 
of water; the crystalline substances pass readily through the parchment and diffuse 
through the water; the colloids, on the contrary, are retained. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE DIGESTIVE AND CIRCULATORY SYSTEMS 

Contents. — Food undergoes Chemical Change by the Addition of Secretions. — 
It is then emptied into the Blood, where it undergoes Oxidation. — Gently 
kneading the Bowels twice a Day aids Digestion. — Warm-water Injections in 
Cases of Severe Constipation, prevent Rectal Fistula. — Some Glands of the Body 
separate Certain Materials from the Blood. — The Kidneys are Glandular 
Organs which secrete the Urine. — Lymphatics are an Aggregation of Small 
Cells enclosed in Connective Tissue. — They are found in all Parts of the Body 
except in the Surface Layer of the Skin, Nails, Hair and Cartilage. — The Lac- 
teals are Lymphatic Vessels which convey the Chyle. — Circulatory Organs are 
the Heart, the Arteries, the Veins and the Capillary Vessels. — Arteries contain 
the Pure, Bright, Red Blood; the Veins, the Dark Blue Blood. 

The digestive system when in a normal condition 
changes the nutritious part of the food into a liquid 
termed chyle, which is taken up by the absorbent vessels 
and conveyed to the blood, while the innutritious part is 
expelled from the system through the digestive canal. 

By thorough mastication and incorporation with 
saliva from the glands on both sides of the mouth, 
the food is prepared to pass through the oesophagus 
into the stomach ; there it undergoes a chemical change 
by the addition of the gastric secretions from numerous 
glands. These secretions contain a digestive principle 
known as pepsin, which has the power of rapidly dis- 
solving the fibrin of meat, including, of course, muscular 
tissue. Pepsin is the most powerful meat solvent known, 
but it has no effect upon living tissue. 1 

1 The juice of the paw-paw and also that of the pineapple have a similar prop- 
erty, and under certain circumstances are highly useful as peptones. 



42 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

After the food leaves the stomach it is immediately 
supplied with secretions from the liver, gall-bladder and 
pancreas; this semi-liquid food is then termed the 
chyme. As it passes through the small intestines, the 
intestinal juices or glandular secretions are added to 
convert the chyme into chyle — a liquid that is to sup- 
ply the various cells of the body with nutrition. The 
solid part of the excrements, deprived of all nutritive 
matter, are expelled from the body. The entire length 
of the small intestine is about twenty-five feet. It is 
lined with velvety, fibrous elongations, each an absorp- 
tive tube, which projects into the digestive canal to 
absorb the liquid nutritive parts of the chyle. 

From the intestines the chyle passes into the lacteal 
vessels, to be carried to a reservoir termed the receptac- 
ulum chyli, which rests upon the lumbar vertebrae. The 
large intestine is connected with the small intestine on 
the right side of the lower part of the abdomen. It is 
about five feet in length, and is divided into four parts : 
the ascending, transverse and descending colons and the 
sigmoid flexure. 

At the beginning of the ascending colon, and posterior 
to its union with the small intestine, there is attached 
a now useless organ, the vermiform appendix, a small 
sac varying from three to six inches in length, its aver- 
age diameter about that of a goose-quill. 1 As its canal 

1 The vermiform appendix seems to be a degeneration of an organ that in cud- 
chewing animals has developed into the proventrum. It has- proved a troublesome 
heirloom of our former condition in nature. Inflammation of this organ is the 
ailment now known as appendicitis. It should be treated — not by hot- water appli- 
cations, for these induce suppuration — but by liniments containing aconite and 
belladonna. Warmth tends to develop and accelerate suppuration instead of pre- 
venting it. 



A- Lunys 



B. Heart 



C titer &Gatl Bit 



D. cSfomaoA 




F. Kidney 



(f. Sottse/s 



ff.Vermifor/n 
J\p/>enciix 



E. Jfi/een- 

F. ' 7(rc/nec/ 



G. Bowels 



I. Uterus 



J, 3/ a deter 



Digestive System. 



Plate IV. 



THE DIGESTIVE AND CIRCULATORY SYSTEMS 43 

connects with that of the large intestine, the small seeds 
of fruit eaten sometimes enters this vermiform appendix, 
causing" severe inflammation and even death. 

The ascending colon of the large intestine 1 passes 
upwards from the lower part of the right side of the 
abdomen to the under surface of the liver, where the 
transverse portion begins. The transverse colon con- 
tinues across the upper part of the abdomen to the left 
side, and then becomes the descending colon. Passing 
downward, the latter terminates in the sigmoid flexure, 
and connects w T ith the upper part of the rectum. 

The rectum extends from the sigmoid flexure to the 
anus, which is the terminus of the alimentary canal ; it 
varies in length from six to eight inches, passing down- 
ward and backward in front of the sacrum and coccyx. 
Near the extremity of the coccyx, it terminates at the 
anus. The rectum is well supplied with blood-vessels 
and nerves; in woman it is normally adherent to the 
posterior wall of the vagina. This fact should be 
remembered by women when operators insist on having 
the " American operation" of removing two or three 
inches of the rectum. 

The glands opening into the large intestines are called 
the " solitary glands." They are more numerous in the 
beginning of the large intestine and the vermiform 
appendix, but are irregularly scattered over the rest of 
the intestines. These are the glands that in typhoid 
fever often ulcerate and become perforated, when the 

1 Gently kneading the bowels throughout the entire length of the ascending, 
transverse and descending colons will aid in correcting indigestion, and injections of 
warm water into the bowels once a week for cleanliness will prevent rectal fistula. 



44 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

patient during convalescence unwisely eats indigestible 
food. Some of the glands of the body separate certain 
materials from the blood and empty them into the ali- 
mentary canal to aid digestion; these glands are the 
salivary glands of the mouth, the liver, and the pancreas. 

The kidneys ire glandular organs which secrete the 
urine. They are placed one on each side of the spinal 
column, in the space termed the small of the back. The 
middle of the kidney nests on the waist-line at the back. 
The urine excreted by the kidneys is conveyed to the 
bladder through tubes, termed ureters. In health, the 
urine is of a light straw or amber color ; it should be 
excreted from the bladder two or three times a day. 
The external opening of the bladder is called the 
urethra. The suprarenal capsules situated at the top 
of each kidney, because they have no excretory duct, 
are classified as ductless glands. The spleen is a blood- 
gland, located on the left side of the body, and is sup- 
posed to manufacture the white blood corpuscles. It is 
also a ductless gland. 

The lymphatic glands are an aggregation of small 
cells enclosed by connective tissue into which some 
lymphatic vessels enter and from which others originate; 
they secrete the lymph, the watery part of the blood. 
They are found in all parts of the body except in the 
surface layer of the skin, nails, hair and cartilage. The 
lacteals are the lymphatic vessels that convey the chyle 
from the intestinal canal. 

In the process of digestion the nutritious part of the 
food is converted into chyle and taken up by the absorb- 
ent lacteals of the lymphatic system. The lacteals 




Glandular System. 



Plate V. 



V 



THE DIGESTIVE AND CIRCULATORY SYSTEMS 45 

carry the chyle to the receptaculum chyli, in the lumbar 
region of the spine. The chyle is conveyed from the 
receptaculum chyli by the left thoracic duct along- the 
spine, until it reaches the left subclavian vein at the root 
of the neck ; here it is poured into the blood. 

The right lymphatic duct conveys lymph from the 
right side of the head, neck and thorax and upper right 
extremity of the right lung, right side of the heart and 
upper surface of the liver. The right lymphatic duct 
opens into the right subclavian veins, and the left lym- 
phatic duct empties into the left subclavian veins, just 
before the latter unite with the internal jugular veins, 
to form the descending vena cava. At this point the 
liquid food unites with the venous blood just before the 
latter enters the lungs, where it is converted into arterial 
or tissue-forming blood. Once in the lungs, the venous 
blood is cleared of waste and impure matter by its union 
with oxygen. From the lungs the oxygenated blood is 
conveyed to the heart, and from the heart through the 
arteries to all the tissues of the body. 

The circulatory organs are the heart, the arteries, the 
veins and the capillary vessels. The capillaries connect 
the arteries and the veins at their distal ends ; the circu- 
latory tubes carry the blood to and from all parts of the 
body. The pure blood from the lungs enters the left 
side of the heart ; from there it is forced through the 
aorta and other large arteries throughout the body, until 
the blood reaches the extremities of the arteries, termed 
the capillaries. 

By these minute vessels the blood comes into immedi- 
ate contact with all the tissues of the body, and supplies 



46 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

them with nutrition. Another set of minute capillaries 
originates in the tissues and carries the excretory mate- 
rial from the cells into the large blood-vessels called the 
veins. The veins begin with the capillaries, becoming 
larger and larger as they near the right side of the heart, 
where they empty the blood into the heart by two large 
veins. One, termed the ascending vena cava, carries the 
blood from the lower extremities, pelvis and abdomen to 
the auricle or upper cavity of the right side of the heart. 
The other, termed the descending vena cava, carries 
blood derived from the head, neck, upper extremities 
and walls of the chest, to the right side of the heart. 

From the right auricle in the upper part of the heart 
the blood flows into the right ventricle or lower cavity* 
of the heart; from there the blood, by the contractions 
of the muscles surrounding the ventricle, is forced 
through the pulmonary arteries into the lungs, where the 
impure blood is oxidized. 

The pulmonary veins carry the oxygenated or pure 
blood from the lungs to the left auricle ; from this distrib- 
uting point the blood flows into the left ventricle. By 
strong contractions of the muscles surrounding the left 
ventricle, the blood is forced into the aorta and through 
all the arteries to the cells of the various organs and to 
the extremities and surface of the body. 

The arterial or pure blood is of a bright red color; 
the venous or impure blood is of a dark blue color. 
Branches from the aorta and vena cava carry blood to 
and from the uterus, ovaries and fallopian tubes. 




fticfaeys 



rV s 



Fallopian 7u6es 
Ovaries 



Circulatory System. 



Plate VI. 



CHAPTER VII 

ABDOMINAL AND PELVIC ORGANS 

Contents. — The Peritoneal Membrane covers Abdominal and Pelvic Organs, and 
forms Ligaments to hold the Various Organs in Position. — Inflammation of the 
Peritoneal Membrane is termed Peritonitis. — Ligaments of the Uterus are Eight 
in Number: Two Broad Ligaments, Two Posterior Ligaments, and Four Ante- 
rior Ligaments — External and Internal Pelvic Organs. — The Infant and Adult 
Female Pelvic Organs. — Their Normal Size. — Normal Ovaries are Small Glan- 
dular Bodies, the Size and Shape of an Almond. — Interior of Ovaries. 

Plate VII. represents the peritoneal membrane which 
covers the abdominal and pelvic organs and forms liga- 
ments to hold the various organs in position. This cov- 
ering lines the abdominal cavity in front, reaching to the 
anterior and upper part of the bladder; it passes over 
the top of the bladder, reaches down to the neck of the 
uterus, and from there passes over the top of the uterus 
and down until it reaches a space between the vagina 
and the rectum; it then passes upwards and incloses 
within its folds the intestines, stomach and liver. The 
membrane envelops the abdominal organs, and forms 
everywhere a completely closed sac, with numerous 
pockets and divisions. 

The peritoneal membrane is subject to severe inflam- 
mation, arising from injuries or colds. When inflamma- 
tion occurs, it is termed peritonitis. This disease often 
occurs during confinement. Inflammation of the cel- 
lular tissue between the peritoneal folds is termed cellu- 
litis. It often occurs in young girls from over exercise 



48 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

and exposure to cold, or from drinking ice water or eat- 
ing ice cream during or near the menstrual period. 

In Plate VII. are represented three openings of the 
body: the urethra (a) — the canal opening into the blad- 
der; the vagina (6) — the canal extending to the uterus; 
and the rectum (c) — the canal opening into the intes- 
tines. The firm tissue lying between the vagina and 
rectum is called the perineum. During the birth of a 
child this tissue is often torn or lacerated. If such an 
accident occurs, the torn edges of the tissue should be 
united as soon as possible after the child is born, for, 
on account of long-continued pressure upon them, the 
tissues are not then so sensitive. 

Pelvic as well as abdominal ligaments are formed by 
the peritoneal membrane. The ligaments which aid in 
the support of the uterus and ovaries are eight in num- 
ber : two broad ligaments, two round ligaments, two 
utero-vesical or anterior ligaments, and two utero-sacral 
or posterior ligaments. 

The peritoneal membrane separates the abdominal 
cavity from the pelvic cavity, and sustains within its 
folds all the abdominal and pelvic organs of the body. 
These folds constitute the ligaments by which these 
organs are suspended from the posterior part of the 
body. As the peritoneal membrane passes both sides 
of the uterus to each side of the pelvic basin or cavity, 
it divides the pelvis into two portions. The anterior 
part contains the bladder, urethra and vagina. In the 
posterior part, when these organs are in normal posi- 
tions, are the rectum, the fallopian tubes and the ovaries. 

The anterior ligaments are formed by two peritoneal 




Peritoneal Covering. 



Plate VII. 




FRONT 



Plate VI I L 



ABDOMINAL ANJ) PELVIC ORGANS 49 

folds, which extend from the neck of the uterus to the 
bladder. The two round ligaments are fibro-muscular 
cords lying within a fold of the peritoneum ; each liga- 
ment has its origin in the upper side of the uterus, and, 
passing forward on either side of the bladder, is lost in 
the fatty tissue of the mons veneris and labia majora. 

The round ligaments of the uterus are those which 
"operators" open the abdomen in order to shorten. 
They remove a piece three or four inches from each 
ligament, and stitch the remaining part of the ligament 
to the surrounding tissue. They prevail upon unin- 
formed women to believe that this operation will sup- 
port the uterus. It invariably fails to do so, however, 
unless the uterus is drawn forward and stitched to the 
abdominal wall, and then, inasmuch as it presses upon 
the bladder, it causes frequent urination and serious dis- 
turbance of the entire nervous system. If conception 
occurs, a miscarriage usually takes place before the third 
or fourth month, because the uterus is held down by 
attachments and by shortened ligaments. No well- 
informed woman will ever submit to this Alexandrian 
operation or to the ventrical fixation. 

From the round ligaments the peritoneal membrane 
passes backward, where it unites into two lateral folds 
which extend from each side of the uterus to each side 
of the pelvis. The fallopian tubes pass along the upper 
margin of these folds. The fimbriated extremities of 
the fallopian tubes open into the peritoneal cavity, 
thus connecting a mucous with a serous surface. The 
ovaries rest upon the posterior surface of the posterior 
folds of the broad ligaments. 



SO WOMAN ANDy DISEASE 

The peritoneal membrane passes backward on each 
side of the rectum, and by two folds forms the posterior 
ligaments. It passes over the top of the bladder, the 
uterus and the front of the rectum, adhering to these 
organs, and by the folding of this membrane forms liga- 
ments, which aid in their support. Being elastic tissues, 
this membrane is easily extended or contracted when 
in normal condition ; but if the body is in an unhealthy 
condition it becomes very relaxed. 

The vulva, or the external organs of an adult woman 
are: the mons veneris, labia majora, labia minora, 
urethra, clitoris, and vagina. The labia majora are two 
external folds extending downward from the mons 
veneris to the anterior boundary of the perineal body. 
The labia are thicker in front than behind, and are 
joined at each extremity, forming an anterior and poste- 
rior commissure ; the interval left between the posterior 
commissure and the interior margin of the anus is 
about an inch in length, and constitutes the base of the 
perineum. 

The labia minora are two small folds of mucous mem- 
brane interior to the labia majora. They extend back- 
ward an inch and a half on each side. The labia minora 
lie on either side of the orifice of the vagina. They are 
continuous externally with the labia majora, and inter- 
nally with the inner surface of the vagina. The clitoris 
is a small body of erectile tissue situated beneath the 
anterior commissure, and partly between the anterior 
extremities of the labia minora. The vestibule is a tri- 
angular, smooth surface, on each side of which is the 
labia minora. The clitoris is anterior to the entrance 







Normal opening of Vagina. 



Plate IX. 






ABDOMINAL AND PELVIC ORGANS 5 1 

of the vagina and posterior to the vestibule. The 
urethra is situated about an inch below the clitoris and 
near the anterior margin of the vagina. When nor- 
mal the vaginal opening should be as represented in 
Plate IX. 

The parents of every newly born child should ascer- 
tain if all the external openings of the body are in nor- 
mal condition. The opening most frequently defective 
in male children is that of the penis ; in female children 
that, of the vagina. Both are due to abnormal constric- 
tion, often caused by inherited inflammatory conditions. 
These defects should be corrected as soon as possible, 
or serious conditions arise ; cleanliness of these parts 
is absolutely necessary, or vicious habits will be formed. 
Parents are responsible for these unhealthy conditions 
in their young children. 

The vagina (Plate VII) is a musculo-membranous 
canal extending from the vulva to the uterus; the 
upper part of the vagina is attached to and completely 
encircles the neck of the uterus, about an inch above 
its external opening. Thus in examination by speculum 
only the lower part of the uterus and the vaginal walls 
can be seen ; the interior part above the vaginal attach- 
ment cannot be seen through the speculum, as many 
have been taught to believe. 

The anterior and posterior walls of the vagina should 
lie in contact, as in this way they aid in supporting the 
uterus. No pessary should be worn that distends the 
vagina, for this would dilate the vaginal walls and draw 
down the uterus. These walls are not smooth, but lie in 
small folds. Excretions or discharges from the glands 



52 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

of the uterus pass down and lodge in these folds ; it is 
therefore absolutely necessary for health and cleanliness 
to use a vaginal injection at least once or twice a week. 
Injections should be taken before retiring at night, to 
avoid taking cold. In case of excessive and too fre- 
quent menstruation, instead of injections use a tonic 
suppository once or twice each week, as the suppository 
removes the excretions, and aids in producing and 
maintaining health of the pelvic organs. 

As has already been described, the pelvic organs of 
woman are situated both on the inside and outside of the 
body. The pelvic organs of man are normally situated 
entirely on the outside of the body. 1 The wisdom of 
this difference of arrangement of the human sexual 
organs is easily understood when it is remembered that 
the mechanical work of the world, which requires severe 
physical labor, also requires a human body suited to 
accomplish that labor. The object of the mechanical 
work is to change the crude elements of the earth into 
finer material for the benefit and advancement of the 
human race. As mechanical work requires so much lift- 
ing and severe exposure to mechanical forces it is neces- 
sary to have the sexual organs external to the body, so 
that the organs contained in the abdomen could not be 
forced down upon the pelvic organs, and so cause dis- 
placement, inflammation, and disease, thus enfeebling 
the race. 

In order that the child in its earliest existence should 
have protection and care, the special physical work of 

1 In infancy the testes are within the pelvic cavity, frequently not descending until 
the child is several years old. 




Plate X. 



ABDOMINAL AND PELVIC ORGANS 53 

the prenatal care of the child was given to woman ; not 
that woman was mentally inferior or superior to man, 
but merely because her pelvic organs were located in the 
body. To man was given the mechanical labor of the 
world merely because his pelvic organs were located 
externally to the body, and not because he was mentally 
inferior or superior to woman. In the beginning Adam 
and Eve were created mentally, morally and socially 
equal, as the divine Family are equal, although each has 
a special work in the evolution of the world. 

Plate X represents the infant and the adult female 
pelvic organs in their normal size. These organs occupy 
the middle of the pelvis, between the bladder and the 
rectum. In shape the uterus resembles an inverted 
pear; the upper part is termed the body, or fundus; the 
lower part the cervix. The constricted part between 
the body and the cervix is called the neck. The walls 
of the uterus are about an inch in thickness, and are 
composed of strong muscular fibres ; the interior of the 
uterus is lined with mucous membrane. Opening upon 
the surface of the mucous membrane are the uterine and 
nabothian glands. In its physical properties the secre- 
tion of these glands is similar to that of the seminal fluid 
of the male. These fluids are both concerned in the 
function of reproduction. 

The cavity of the uterus is triangular in shape. At 
each side of its base are the openings into the fallopian 
tubes. At the apex of the triangle is an opening termed 
the internal os, which, passing through the neck to the 
cervix, opens into the cervical canal, where there is 
another opening, termed the external os. The latter 



54 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

opens into the vagina. The length of the interior of 
the normal uterus is three inches ; the width at the base 
is about an inch and a half. 

The opening in each side of the body of the uterus 
passes into the fallopian tubes. These tubes are funnel- 
shaped, the smaller end being attached to the side and 
upper part of the uterus. The outer expanded end of 
the tube is surrounded by fringe-like processes, one of 
which is attached to the ovary, another extending to the 
side of the pelvis. The rest of these fringe-like extremi- 
ties are unattached and free. 

The ovaries are small glandular bodies. Each is 
about the size and shape of an almond, and measures 
about one inch and a half in length, three-fourths of an 
inch in width, and nearly one-half an inch in thickness. 
Each ovary is attached to the side of the uterus by 
a ligament composed of fibres, into which some of the 
uterine muscular tissues are prolonged. Each ovary is 
also connected with a corresponding fallopian tube by 
one of the fimbria or fringe-like processes. 

Plate XI represents the interior of an ovary highly 
magnified. The Graafian follicles are round or slight- 
ly oval cavities of the ovaries, each of which contains 
one or more ovules. The ovule or female germ-cell is 
a collection of grandular protoplasm containing a round 
body termed the germinal vesicle, in the centre of which 
is the germinal spot. The human ovule at the time of 
its being discharged from the ovary has an external, 
transparent, membranous covering termed the vitelline 

membrane. 

The small cavities or scars upon the surface of the 




Magnified Ovary. 



Plate XI. 



ABDOMINAL AND PELVIC ORGANS 55 

ovaries from which the ovule has escaped are termed 
the corpus luteum. After the ovule has escaped from the 
surface of the ovary it passes down through the fallo- 
pian tube into the uterus and vagina with other excre- 
tory products. Unless conception occurs, by its union 
with the spermatozoon contained in the semen from the 
male, it is finally excreted. 

The Graafian follicle increases in size by the produc- 
tion of a liquid, the liquor folliculi, within its cavity, sur- 
rounding the ovule. As this liquid increases in quantity 
by the increased blood supply, it distends the wall of 
the Graafian follicle, causing it to project from the sur- 
face of the ovary and until it becomes so thin that it 
finally bursts, discharging the ovule with some of the 
cells of the membrana granulosa. The ovule passes 
from the surface of the ovary into the fallopian tube on 
its way to the uterus. 



CHAPTER VIII 

PHYSICAL DEGENERACY.— PELVIC DISORDERS 

Contents. — Women should know the Cause of their 111 Health. — Symptoms of 
Displacements of the Uterus and Ovaries. — Antiflexion. — Antiversion. — Posi- 
tion to correct. — Retroflexion. — Retroversion. — Adhesions formed. — Electric- 
ity will remove Adhesions. — Uterus assumes the Correct Position while taking 
the Knee-chest Position. — Prolapsus Uteri, or falling of the Uteius. — Causes. — 
To correct Prolapsus of the Uterus. — Cervical Flexion. — Position to correct 
Cervical Flexion. — Imperforated Hymen. — Punctured Hymen. — Crescent- 
shaped Hymen. — Lacerated Hymen. — Annular Form of Hymen. — Presence 
of the Hymen no Evidence of Virtue, or is its Absence Proof to the Contrary. 

— Retention of Menstruation caused by Imperforated Hymen. — Presence of 
Hymen should be discovered as early as Possible. — Pelvic Hematocele. — Sub- 
peritoneal. — Intraperitoneal. — Abnormal Growths of the Uterus and Ovaries. 

— The Prevailing Causes of Disease of the Uterus and Ovaries. — The Higher 
Education of Women tends to decrease the Congestion and Diseases of the Pel- 
vic Organs. — Hypochondria. — A Diseased Imagination. — Hysteria. — Reflex 
Irritation of the Higher Nerve Centres. 

Women should know the cause of their ill health. 
One of woman's greatest needs is to understand bet- 
ter the cause of disease. In general they know very 
little concerning these subjects, nor do they know how 
to prevent the nervous diseases and surgical operations 
by which so many thousands of women every year are 
becoming the victims. The causes are numerous, yet 
not so numerous but that women may discover them 
and in the near future prevent unnecessary operations 
which are now constantly being made. 

As this book is exclusively for women, it will consider 
in respect to women the ill effect of not understanding 
the necessary laws of health and the cause of prevailing 

56 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY 57 

social diseases. As women are not entirely to blame for 
all the ills to which flesh is heir, the cause and effect of 
disease must be considered as also coming from other 
sources. 

Well-informed women know that women have been 
ruled and dictated to by men ever since Father Adam 
assumed to be the head of Mother Eve. Men have dic- 
tated in regard to woman's dress, her form, her duties, 
and in fact have freely discussed the feasibility of allow- 
ing her to exist as an individual. 

American women have reached the limit of their 
endurance of tyranny, submission and degradation ; they 
have passed through these different stages. As a result 
a reaction has taken place, which has originated a deter- 
mination to know the truth, or at least to have freedom 
of thought and action by which in time they can gain 
mental and moral courage and legal equality. They 
have also observed that their habits of dress concerning 
which men have always been so ready to dictate, and the 
styles which men have originated for women, are some 
of the means of keeping women in subjection and ill- 
health. They have learned that ignorant as well as 
immoral women dress conspicuously and enlarge artifi- 
cially the busts and hips, because they are aware that 
their male associates desire it. 

Even the savage races know that any part of the body 
becomes greatly enlarged by manipulation. They there-* 
fore enlarge all the sexual parts to the detriment of body 
and mind. Intelligent women are realizing that if the 
spiritual powers are not developed, the physical powers 
will rule the body and mind of both men and women. 



58 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

When its object is voluptuousness, physical develop- 
ment excites the sensual desires and invariably degrades 
the mind. Such sensualists assume to be perfectly inno- 
cent of any evil motive, and quote the false saying that 
" to the pure all things are pure." They are never- 
theless conscious of what they are attempting to ac- 
complish, although they do not think that others can 
comprehend their motives. 

Plate XII. represents the form produced by tight 
clothing and heavy skirts suspended from the waist. 
A constriction at the waist causes a protrusion of the 
abdomen, chest and hips ; the abdominal organs are 
forced down upon the pelvic organs, causing constipa- 
tion, frequent urination or a retention of the urine, and 
various displacements of the uterus and ovaries, result- 
ing in serious disturbance of the nervous system. 

Prominence of the bust and abdomen is suggestive of 
the preponderance of the physical nature, even, as is 
often the case, when it is the result of ignorance or 
inherited tendencies. Heavy clothing, as well as con- 
striction of the waist, presses the intestines down 
between the uterus and the rectum, causing constipa- 
tion and piles or hemorrhoids. Such conditions, how- 
ever, may arise from other causes as well ; but women 
should understand all the different causes and effects 
interfering with their health and happiness. 

Symptoms of displacement of the uterus and ovaries 
are varied, and differ according to the nature of the 
various displacements. Prominent among the symp- 
toms are headache, backache, pain in the shoulders, 
pain near the region of the heart, in either or in both 




Constricted Waist. 



Plate XII 







Anteflexion of the Uterus. 



Plate XIII, 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY 59 

sides above the hip, in the groins, in front of the abdo- 
men, numbness or contraction of the limbs, disturbance 
of menstruation, pain in passing urine, constipation, 
piles, diarrhoea, nausea, extreme nervousness, excessive 
laughing, crying, talking, abnormal sensibility to fright, 
irritability of temper, restlessness, sleeplessness, lan- 
guor, indisposition to exercise, despondency, indecision, 
timidity, and avoidance of all mental responsibility. All 
these symptoms are caused by irritation and pressure of 
the uterus or of the ovaries on the spinal and sympa- 
thetic nerves. 

When displacement first occurs the pain is more 
severe, but as inflammation and irritability of the 
nerves subside, the condition becomes chronic and 
much more difficult to cure, especially if the uterus or 
ovaries from contact with the walls of the pelvis, rectum, 
or the bladder become attached to the peritoneal cov- 
ering of these organs. Long-continued pressure may 
disturb the nervous system sufficiently to cause insanity 
or suicide. 

Plate XIII represents a displacement of the uterus 
termed antiflexion ; the top of the uterus folds or flexes 
forward upon the bladder, or perhaps to the left or the 
right side. This form of displacement causes frequent 
urination when the top of the uterus rests upon the 
bladder; or if the top rests to one side or the other it 
will cause an acute or sharp pain in the part it rests 
upon. If the pressure remains long it causes a dull, 
continuous ache. 

Antiflexion of the uterus usually causes retention of 
the menstrual flow, or pain when menstruation occurs ; 



60 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

these affections are termed amenorrhcea, or absence of 
the menstrual flow, and dismenorrhcea, or difficult men- 
struation. The pressure of the top of the uterus upon 
the sympathetic nerves causes various reflex sensations, 
producing pain in and above the eyes, intense nervous 
headache or extreme nervousness, and very often pain 
near the heart if the top of the uterus rests against the 
side of the pelvis in a direct line with the heart. Anti- 
flexion greatly disturbs the entire nervous system, caus- 
ing a tendency to cry, laugh or talk to excess, and to be 
intensely irritable. 

Plate XIV represents antiversion of the uterus. In 
this form of displacement the top of the uterus falls 
directly forward, the lower part directly backward. The 
top may fall upon the bladder or at either side, causing 
frequent or painful urination. If the top is against the 
abdominal wall it causes pain in the tissues upon which 
it presses. The same symptoms, although not so severe, 
arise as in antiflexion, with the exception that in anti- 
flexion menstruation is not painful, but excessive. This 
difference arises from the uterus being folded or flexed 
in antiflexion, preventing the flow from easily passing 
out of the uterus. 

In many instances the cervix, or the lower part of the 
uterus, presses directly upon the rectum, causing either 
constipation or diarrhoea, and at other times the pres- 
sure is upon the sciatic nerve (see Plate II), causing 
pain and contraction of the limb. If the top of the 
uterus is far enough to one side it presses upon the 
crural nerve, as also seen in Plate II, where the uterus 
is represented by dotted lines. Pressure on the crural 
nerve causes pain down the side of the limb and foot. 




Anteversion of the Uterus. 



Plate XIV. 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY 6l 

Antiversion usually causes a tendency to excessive 
menstruation from the time of its first occurrence. 
The flow becomes especially excessive between the age 
of thirty-eight and forty, usually increasing in quantity 
so long as menstruation continues, and is exceedingly 
difficult to check before the antiversion is corrected. 
When the pressure is more upon the back, that is, when 
the lower part of the uterus is against the lower part of 
the back, it invariably causes pain in the back of the 
neck or the lower part of the back of the head; this 
pressure often causes severe constipation, piles or diar- 
rhoea. In either antiversion or antiflexion, the top of 
the uterus may, and frequently does, fall to one side or 
the other of the bladder, causing pain and soreness 
as well as a disagreeable feeling in the hip of the oppo- 
site side due to the tension on the ligaments and ovary. 

Pressure upon the sympathetic nerves will cause pain 
near the region of the heart or at the shoulder, facial 
neuralgia and difficulty in breathing, due to irritation of 
the nerves and contraction of the muscles of the throat 
and chest. The reflex of such pressure may also result 
in pains through, and above the eyes, between the shoul- 
ders, and in the back just below the waist-line. The 
severe pain sometimes occurring in the groins is caused 
by a displacement of the ovaries, w T hich are dragged for- 
ward and down by the uterus. Both antiversion and 
antiflexion should be corrected as soon as possible, as 
they immediately produce great disturbances of the 
nervous system. Leaning forward, lying upon the ab- 
domen or any extreme physical exertion in lifting, walk- 
ing, or reaching above the head frequently cause such 
displacements. 



62 ::.::> i — i 

Plate XV represents the position to be taken a 

minute or two, at least four times a day, to correct anti- 
flexion or or antiversion ; if this position is fatiguing the 
back should be supported by pillows. In correcting 
such displacements of the uterus it is absolutely neces- 
sary to take this position. Very warm injections should 
be used also at least two evenings each week and a tonic 
suppository twice a week. 

Use quite hot water when antiversion exists, but in 
cases of antiflexion, the injection should be warm only. 
If the displacement has recently occurred, such home 
treatment may be all that is required. In any case, how- 
t"."tr, the patient should consult a competent physician, 
in order to ascertain in what position the uterus is dis- 
placed. The physician will inform the patient of the 
character of the displacement, and what positions should 
be taken to aid in its correction, and will also prescribe 
such remedies as are meet^-r to improve the general 
health. 

When :- : version and reflexion occur, the top of 
the uterus falls back against the rectum, or at either side 
of it. 

Plate XVI represents a form of retroflexion in which 
:r.e : :~i ::' :;-.t u:eru? :s turned :i:k"^ri5 uruir.s: :he 
rectum. The top of the uterus may also fall to the side 
of the rectum; it may also press against nerves and 
blood vessels which supply the limbs. 

7vt::; 7.±:::;~ reuses usiufnl niensrrusricu :.:\i severe 
congestion of the blood vessels of the pelvic organs. If 
the top of the uterus presses against the spinal nerves it 
css^rs zii:\ ::; the lower pir: :: :i:e :: : \:\i ^vr:e 




Elevation of Hips. 



Plate XV. 




Retroflexion of the Uterus. 



Plate XV V- 




Retroversion of the Uterus. 



Plate XVII. 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY 63 

aching and drawing sensations in the back of the head 
and neck. When the uterus presses more heavily upon 
the nerves passing to the lower extremities, the pressure 
causes pain, contraction and even swelling in different 
parts of the lower limbs. 

In Plate XVII the uterus is represented in a condi- 
tion of retroversion, the top being turned against the 
back or upon the rectum, while the cervix, or lower part, 
is either at one side of the bladder or against it. In this 
form of displacement the uterus and ovaries are almost 
invariably enlarged. 

Both retroflexion and retroversion affect the nervous 
system more severely than any other forms of displace- 
ments, from the fact that they cause depression of the 
mind, by pressure upon various nerves. One feels in- 
clined to look on the dark side of life and often there is 
a feeling that life is not worth living. In severe cases a 
patient so afflicted sometimes contemplates taking her 
own life — possibly that of another person. Melancholy 
or insanity is very frequently the result of these forms of 
displacement of the uterus. 

There is no necessity for such a state of mind, nor for 
serious results occurring if women are taught to recog- 
nize symptoms of displacements of the uterus when the 
latter first occur. Thousands of women who have lost 
their minds, as well as their lives, by various displace- 
ments and diseases of the uterus and ovaries, could 
have been easily saved had they been instructed con- 
cerning the anatomy of the body and the symptoms of 
various displacements of its organs. 

Plate XVIII represents retroversion of the uterus, 



64 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

continuing even when the patient is taking the knee- 
chest position to correct it. In such cases as are shown 
in the illustration attachments, have formed between the 
top of the uterus and the peritoneal lining of the pelvis, 
the two surfaces having pressed upon each other suffi- 
ciently to finally cause adhesion. In cases of this 
nature, it requires a physician versed in the scientific 
use of electricity to remove these adhesions. There is 
no necessity for an operation, although there are many 
operators who invariably tell women suffering from such 
difficulties : " You must submit to an operation in order 
to have displacements or diseases of the uterus or ova- 
ries corrected." 

When the displacement has existed for months or 
years the adhesions become very extensive, requiring for 
corrrection the taking of the knee-chest positions for 
months. The application of the proper currents of 
electricity is the best remedy to successfully remove 
the adhesions. None but a physician who has a scien- 
tific knowledge of electro-therapeutics should be allowed 
to apply electricity as a remedial agent ; quite as much 
and as serious harm is done when the physician is not 
an electrician as when the electrician is not a physician. 

When there are no attachments, the uterus assumes 
the correct position while taking the knee-chest position 
in correcting retroflexion or retroversion, as seen in 
Plate XIX. 

Flexion of the uterus often causes the most excru- 
ciating pain at the time of the menstrual flow. Such 
suffering causes young girls and women to become pre- 
maturely old in appearance, as well as to bring about 




^ilaijliiiiiiiiiiiii 






Knee-chest position. 



Plate XVIII. 




■ ■ ■ 



Knee-chest position, normal. 






Plate XIX. 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY 65 

innumerable abnormal conditions, such as irritability 
of the nervous system, languor, tendency to laugh or 
cry immoderately without apparent cause, despondency, 
abnormal appetite — as a constant desire for pickles, 
starch, chalk, etc. Constipation or diarrhoea usually 
occurs. 

When the complexion becomes sallow, or acquires the 
greenish tinge termed "green sickness," or chlorosis, 
there is not only a deficiency of red corpuscles of the 
blood, but also more or less biliary matter. The defi- 
ciency is caused by the retention of impure excretions 
in the system, thereby poisoning the blood. 

Prolapsus uteri, or falling of the uterus, varies in 
degree. The normal position of the uterus is about 
four inches above the external opening of the vagina. 
When the uterus settles below this point, it is a slight 
prolapsus. When it settles down to the opening of 
the vagina, it constitutes severe prolapsus. When, how- 
ever, it passes out of the vagina and becomes exter- 
nal to the body, it is then a complete prolapsus, termed 
procidentia. 

Plate XX represents the form of prolapsus of the 
uterus which most frequently occurs in married women 
who have borne a number of children. The usual 
causes of complete prolapsus are excessive sexual inter- 
course and too frequent pregnancies, together with the 
accumulation of secretions ' in the vagina which have 
not been removed by syringing ; also by laborious physi- 

1 Abnormal temperature and irritation excite the secretions which are especially 
liable to putrefactive fermentation. The necessity of frequent applications of very 
warm water cannot be too strongly impressed. Not only is it cleansing, but it also 
gives tone and strength to flabby tissues. 




Position for correcting prolapsus. 



Plate XXI. 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY 67 

Prolapsus of the uterus, accompanied by congestion, 
invariably causes pain and a burning sensation in the 
top of the head. If the sensation is back of the centre 
of the head, the top of the uterus is pressing backwards. 
If the sensation is a little in front of the centre of the 
head, the top of the uterus usually leans too far for- 
wards. 

Plate XXI represents the position required to be 
taken several times a day to correct prolapsus of the 
uterus. Quite hot vaginal injections should be taken 
at least three times a w r eek, and a tonic suppository 
twice a week is advisable. This kind of treatment will 
correct the most severe cases, even when the uterus has 
been forced outside the body. 

In a condition of complete prolapsus, women have 
been known to perform severe physical labor, such as 
washing and general housework, but the invariable 
result of this is a sacrifice of mental strength and dis- 
ease of the physical body. In this condition women 
often lose their nervous sensibility, and, if nothing is 
done to remove the abnormal condition, even reach a 
state of mental paralysis. 

Plate XXII represents prolapsus or falling of the 
uterus, complicated with cervical flexion. This dis- 
placement often occurs in school-girls, and it is com- 
monly caused by extreme exercise, such as jumping the 
rope, dancing, and running up and down stairs during 
the menstrual period. 

When walking, the weight of the body should fall 
upon the front of the feet, and not upon the heels. Cer- 
vical flexion in very young girls often causes paralysis of 



68 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

the uterus, the uterus and ovaries being reduced in size 
to that found in very early childhood. Such a condition 
is known as infantile uterus and ovaries, as shown in 
Plate X. 

Various organic diseases, of which the most frequent 
is disease of the heart, are often caused by paralysis of 
the uterus resulting from cervical flexion. This condi- 
tion may cause a disease of the whole system, which is 
often incorrectly diagnosed " consumption of the lungs," 
but the diagnosis in these cases should be " consumption 
of the entire body," as such a condition literally occurs, 
when, as in serious cases the menstruation entirely 
ceases, a low continuous fever is then established, and 
this causes emaciation of the body; a severe cough 
arises, which becomes exaggerated when the patient is 
lying down. The pus expectorated originates from 
inflammation of the tissues of the pelvic organs, and is 
carried by the blood to the lungs. When this inflamma- 
tion extends through the entire system fatal results soon 
follow. 

In order to assist nature to correct cervical flexions, 
the patient should first take the knee-chest position, as 
represented in Plate XIX. After remaining in this 
position for a few minutes she should lie down on the 
back and rest a few moments ; lastly the body should be 
raised upon the shoulders and elbows, as seen in Plate 
XXI. One minute is long enough to continue in this 
position which should be taken several times a day. It 
is not necessary to remove the clothing in taking the 
various positions recommended, although tight clothing 
prevents the organs of the body in assuming their cor- 




Cervical flexion of the Uterus. 



Plate XXII. 




Imperforated Hymen. 



Plate XXIII. 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY 69 

rect position at any time. Use very warm injections in 
the vagina once or twice a week just before retiring. 
Rest and quiet should be secured and emotional dis- 
turbances should be avoided. All these efforts will 
greatly aid a competent physician in correcting this 
serious condition. 

When ovarian disturbances arise during these dis- 
placements, as they commonly do, the bowels should be 
carefully regulated, so that the evacuation may be semi- 
fluid, until the acute conditions subside. To prevent 
prolapsus of the uterus and ovaries, as well as to correct 
displacements after they have occurred, it is necessary to 
elevate the hips at least three or four times a day, as 
seen in Plate XXI. Prevent, so much as possible, any 
depressing mental or physical exercise ; have plenty of 
fresh air, salt baths, cheerful company, healthy food for 
mind and body and wholesome literature as a mental 
stimulus. 

The hymen, ignorantly termed " the maidenhead," is 
an abnormal extension of the mucous membrane lining 
the vagina. Sometimes this membrane is stretched en- 
tirely across the orifice, as seen in Plate XXIII, a con- 
dition known as an imperforated hymen. No mother 
should allow her daughter to pass out of babyhood with- 
out knowing whether or not an abnormal hymen exists. 

Plate XXIV represents a punctured hymen, with two 
small openings not larger than the head of a pin. Often 
there exist strong muscular tissues extending from the 
front to the back of the vagina. If the hymen is allowed 
to remain several years it will necessitate quite a severe 
operation, but if removed when the child is only a few 



70 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

weeks or months old, it would in most cases require only 
a slight pressure between the end of the thumb and fore- 
finger to remove it, without causing any pain to the 
child. 

Plate XXV represents the crescent-shaped hymen, 
with a curved line as an opening. This form of hymen 
invariably retains more or less of the excretions, so that 
there is a continual absorption of poisonous material, 
causing congestion, and in time a complication of 
troubles. 

Plate XXVI represents the hymen after being forcibly 
ruptured. 

The hymen may form only a narrow fold around the 
edge of the vagina known as the annular form, as ob- 
served in Plate XXVII. 

The hymen should be entirely absent, as shown in 
Plate IX. The best medical authorities affirm that the 
presence of hymen is no evidence of virtue, nor is its 
absence proof to the contrary, as the hymen has been 
discovered in prostitutes, and also in women who have 
given birth to premature children. Yet when the 
hymen is imperforated, as in Plate XXIII, menstrua- 
tion or sexual intercourse could not occur completely 
until the hymen was ruptured. This condition of the 
hymen causes retention of the ovules, other excretions, 
and the menstrual flow, causing various kinds of skin 
diseases, especially those that affect the face, as pimples 
which are so often seen on the faces of young girls, 
although eruptions may result from other causes. Chlo- 
rosis, which is known as " the blood turning to water," 
and also epileptic seizures and heart affections, melan- 




Punctured Hymen. 



Plate XXIV. 




Crescent-shaped Hymen, 



Plate XXV. 




Lacerated Hymen. 



Plate XXVI. 




^ 



Annular Hymen. 



Plate XXVII. 




Retained Menstruation due to Imperforated Hymen. 



Plate XXVIII. 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY 7 I 

choly or attacks of mania; one or more of these affec- 
tions are invariably caused by abnormal hymen existing, 
especially the imperforated hymen. 

The existence of an imperforated hymen even in 
babyhood should be discovered and corrected. It is 
very easy to correct then, as the membrane has not 
become firm and tense. Children having one or both 
parents who have suffered from pelvic inflammation or 
venereal disease are almost invariably born with more 
or less inflammation of the pelvic organs, especially of 
the urinary passage in boys and the vagina in girls. 
This inflammation should be corrected as early as possi- 
ble. The parts must be kept clean, or a partial or com- 
plete closure of these openings will occur. 

If an imperforated hymen is allowed to remain until 
the child is fourteen or fifteen years of age, when the 
menstrual flow begins to pass into the vagina, then such 
a condition as is shown in Plate XXVIII will develop. 
The flow will not only dilate the vaginal walls but the 
uterus and fallopian tubes as well, often causing uncon- 
sciousness, convulsions or temporary insanity. If when 
the vagina and uterus are distended with blood the 
hymen is suddenly broken, a fatal hemorrhage may 
occur. 

Congestion of the pelvic vessels, whether from abnor- 
mal hymen, from flexion of the uterus, or from an insuf- 
ficient opening into the cavity of the uterus, may rup- 
ture one or more of the ovarian blood-vessels, causing a 
flow of blood into the pelvic basin, as shown in Plate 
XXIX. The black surface represents a blood tumor, 
termed in medical works hematocele. This particular 



72 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

effusion is known as subperitoneal hematocele, because 
the blood escapes below the peritoneal membrane — the 
one that separates the abdominal from the pelvic cavity. 

Plate XXX shows the intra-peritoneal hematocele in 
which the blood has escaped into the peritoneal cavity. 
This form of hematocele is very serious, and usually 
proves fatal. Sometimes at the menstrual period the 
blood escapes in small quantities into the peritoneal 
cavity 7 , causing inflammation and the formation of pus, 
which is absorbed and carried through the entire sys- 
tem; the pus entering the lungs is expectorated, as in 
cases of consumption of the lungs. In time this condi- 
tion produces consumption of the entire body. 

Plate XXXI represents a variety of abnormal growths 
of the uterus, external and internal. A growth of this 
kind found within the cavity of the uterus, especially in 
the lower part, or within the cervix, is termed a polypus. 
Such a growth arises usually from thickened membrane 
caused by severe inflammation. The large polypus or 
tumor which grows from the upper and interior walls of 
the uterus is formed of quite solid tissue, similar to that 
of the smaller polypus. 

Tumors growing directly within the muscular walls 
of the uterus, as well as those attached to its outside 
walls, are usually composed of fibroid tissue, and are 
known as fibroid tumors of the uterus. Those within 
the cavity of the uterus are termed sub-mucous, because 
they grow from a mucous membrane. Those attached 
to the outside of the uterus are termed sub-serous, 
because they grow from a serous membrane. 

Plate XXXII represents tumors and tumorous condi- 




Sub-peritoneal Hematocele. 



Plate XXIX. 




Intra-peritoneal Hematocele. 



Plate XXX. 




Polypi and Tumors of the Uterus. 



Plate XXXI. 



B 





- \fu£& 



Tumors of the Ovaries and Cancer of the Uterus. 



Plate XXXII. 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY J 7, 

tions of the uterus and ovaries ; it shows also a cancer 
of the cervix of the uterus. These conditions arise from 
various causes, but the majority of them arise from 
venereal diseases, inherited or acquired. Ovaries with 
considerable cystic enlargement are common, but there 
is comparative absence of cysts in large fibroid ova- 
rian tumors ; a represents cystic tumors of the right 
ovary. The fluids have accumulated in this ovary from 
inflammation, and the thickening of the covering of 
the -ovary has occurred. The rupture of the enlarged 
Graafian follicle and the escape of the ovules are there- 
fore prevented. Such retention of cystic fluid is often 
the beginning of cystic tumors of the ovaries. These 
conditions often arise from repeated and serious colds. 
When first accumulated to form a cystic tumor the fluid 
usually resembles the uncooked white of an egg ; later it 
becomes very thick and even solid, and when inflamma- 
tion is severe and acute the semi-fluid becomes partially 
organized tissue ; or it may break down, forming pus. 
The latter is either discharged through the uterus and 
vagina, or it may enter the pelvic cavity, causing fatal 
results. As often occurs, the pus may pass into the 
bowels, afterwards to be discharged through the rectum. 

B represents vibro-cystic tumor of the left ovary; in 
this condition the fibrous tissue predominated, with a 
few small cysts existing on the surface. 

The boundary between the normal and the pathologi- 
cal ovary is often extremely ill-defined ; there is no mor- 
bid condition which can be termed " slight degeneration," 
although there may be small cysts originating from the 
enlargement of a few Graafian vesicles. But since this 



"-1 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

condition occurs in the fcetal ovary as a physiological 
process, it is not enough to constitute a disease Never- 
theless, moderately enlarged Graafian vesicles under cer- 
tain morbid influences may develop each into a cyst as 
large as a pigeon T s egg; the ovarian tissue also may be- 
come unhealthy and develop the ovary' into a solid tumor 
as large as a child's head. Furthermore, the ovaries may 
be transformed into a single large central cyst sur- 
rounded zy i r.arrcw ring- :: tissue, as seen in :de :ase 
:: rue rirh: :*ur; Plare XXXII. These fibrous rings 
may become s : dense and strong as to prevent the cystic 
tumor from enlarging. In such a case it will gradually 
contract and disappear; or if the walls are thin and the 
ovarian cyst : :>mrnunicates with the fallopian tube, it 
may empty itself through the tube, uterus and vagina. 

In the same plate, C is represented as an obstruction 
of the fallopian tube, owing to the accumulation of semi- 
solid or even solid material. In most instances this 
obstruction can be removed by the scientific application 
of electricity, converting it into sema liquid, which will 
discharge through the uterus and vagina. In all forms 
of non-malignant tumors, excepting the solid fibroid, the 
walls :: the tumor can be gradually contracted so that 
absorption or discharge of the tumor will occur without 
any risk to the patients life. 

When cancer of the cervix is present as shown in 
P'.;.:e XXXII. excision by electric cautery is the only 
efficient means of its removal. In all forms of conges- 
tion of the pelvic organs, the patient should especially 
avoid emotional disturbances. The use of very warm 
injections in the vagina two or three times a week is 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 75 

beneficial. The tincture of iodine once a day may rje 
applied over the painful part, especially when the ovaries 
are congested or enlarged. 

To prevent prolapsus of the congested ovaries, as well 
as to correct displacements after they have occurred, it 
is necessary to elevate the hips at least two or three 
times a day. Prevent as much as possible either depres- 
sing or exciting mental or physical exercise ; have plenty 
of fresh air, salt baths, cheerful company and healthful 
food for both mind and body. The same care applies to 
all forms of nervous disturbances arising from such pel- 
vic conditions. 

Uterine and ovarian diseases are the prevailing dis- 
eases among women, and as a reflex nearly always cause 
extreme nervousness. When congested and displaced 
organs rest upon nerves, the very severe nervous disturb- 
ances are brought about which are erroneously termed 
hysteria. Young girls often suffer from pelvic inflam- 
mation ; but immediate attention to the removal of the 
inflammation, and care in regard to exercise, clothing, 
and attention to general health, will result in recovery in 
a few days or weeks, without resorting to an operation — 
a desire to perform which is the prevailing fad among a 
certain class of physicians. 

Inherited disease of the ovaries is often caused by 
transmission of venereal diseases from the parents to 
children or by sexual excess of parents. Diseases of 
the sexual organs of either parent may be transmitted 
to the child. Imperfect development of the ovaries 
generally occurs in an undeveloped physical system, 
the ovaries being undeveloped from the same cause 



76 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

which prevented the normal development of the entire 
body. Atrophy, or hardened condition of the ovaries, is 
often caused by severe constitutional depression, such as 
severe or prolonged illness, sudden shocks or fright, 
intense sorrow or anger. Congestion of the ovaries 
occurs during sexual excitement and menstruation, as 
the pelvic organs at such times receive an increased 
blood supply. The nervous system at the same time is 
greatly disturbed, as there exists an intimate relation 
between the nerves and blood-vessels of the brain and 
pelvic organs. A disturbance of one will affect the 
other. 

Congestion of the ovaries often causes hemorrhage to 
occur, by the rupture of a small blood-vessel which sup- 
plies the ovaries or fallopian tubes, the blood emptying 
into the pelvic or abdominal cavities, causing hematocele 
or blood tumors, as shown in Plates XXIX and XXX. 
Such accidents frequently occur near or during the men- 
strual periods. In other conditions the ovaries may be 
so engorged with blood that the entire ovary may be 
compared to a sponge saturated with blood. 

Pains extending from the back to the thigh and 
neuralgic pains in the breast may be regarded as indica- 
tive of ovarian congestion. This condition often occurs 
in newly married women, previously healthy ; the same 
condition occurs also in prostitutes, who suffer excruci- 
ating pain during sexual intercourse, due to the chronic 
state of congestion of the vagina, uterus and ovaries. 
In the latter class of patients, however, the sensitive 
stage soon passes into one of abnormal insensibility or 
paralysis. 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY. 77 

Says a well-known physician : " The gratifying results 
observed in cases of married women with ovarian trouble 
after a stay of a few months in a private hospital are due 
quite as much to the suspension of their marital rela- 
tions as to the local treatment which they have received." 

Suspension from marital relations is absolutely neces- 
sary to ensure recovery; sexual excesses cause inflam- 
mation and congestion of the ovaries and fallopian tubes, 
as well as inflammation and ulceration of the uterus. 

The prevailing causes of disease of the uterus and 
ovaries are due to sexual excesses which lead to conges- 
tion and serious inflammation of these organs. These 
diseases are transmitted from mother to daughter. Some 
male doctors who frequently examine prostitutes testify 
that " chronic inflammation of the ovaries is essentially 
an affection arising as a result of violent and oft-repeated 
intercourse." 

Symptoms of acute congestion of the ovary are sud- 
den, and often attended by violent pains in one or both 
ovaries, together with extreme nervousness ; or there 
may be nausea, vomiting and often extreme exhaustion. 

After the acute attack subsides there is nervous irrita- 
bility, the mind becomes easily excited or distressed, and 
the patient often complains of fatigue and pains in the 
region of the ovaries. Frequent and profuse menstrua- 
tion is not unlikely to occur. At first the patient feels 
better during menstruation, but if the chronic inflamma- 
tion supervenes, continued and excessive menstruation 
will cause the disorders to become more severe. Chronic 
congestion of the ovaries may so affect the nervous sys- 
tem as to cause epileptic convulsions, and various other 
serious affections. 



78 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

Wives and prostitutes suffer from much more serious, 
intense and destructive inflammation of the uterus and 
ovaries than unmarried women and children. In young 
women whose ovaries are not developed or have been 
removed before puberty, menstruation does not occur, 
but if after menstruation has been thoroughly estab- 
lished the ovaries are removed, menstruation often 
continues, because the uterus has formed the habit of 
congesting periodically. There are known cases of con- 
ception occurring after both ovaries have been removed, 
which was due to some of the ovarian tissues being left 
in the body. Women who have never menstruated 
have conceived, and conception sometimes occurs dur- 
ing lactation. 

All women should be able to recognize the symptoms 
of pelvic disorders, especially symptoms of displace- 
ments and congestion, in order to prevent tumors of the 
ovaries and uterus. When the ovaries are congested, a 
dull aching pain located in the groins or lower part of 
the back is generally present. In some instances the 
pain is of a throbbing, aching character, becoming much 
worse when standing or walking. It radiates from the 
ovary to the back and hips and often extends down the 
limbs. At first it is periodical, but in a short time it 
becomes continuous ; menstruation is usually profuse, 
being either increased in . quantity, prolonged in dura- 
tion, or too frequent in occurrence. 

As the ovary increases in size it adheres to the parts 
with which it comes in contact. The enlarged ovary 
usually presses upon some nerve or ganglia, causing 
mental depression and fatigue. Chronic congestion of 




PHYSICAL DEGENERACY 79 

the ovaries may so affect the sympathetic nervous sys- 
tem as to cause epileptic convulsions. With young 
women these severe forms of inflammation of the ova- 
ries arise from imprudence during menstruation, as 
wearing thin-soled shoes, fatiguing exercises, dancing, 
shopping, or having dresses fitted. All these should be 
most carefully avoided at the menstrual period. 

Congestion of the ovaries often occur in young girls 
who have inherited an emotional temperament, espe- 
cially those who have developed more rapidly sexually 
than mentally. 1 Such a condition is liable to occur in 
young girls whose fathers are controlled by their animal 
nature, as daughters usually inherit the temperaments of 
their fathers and sons the temperaments of their mothers, 
yet their association in youth and adult life counteracts 
inherited tendencies very often, although the youths of 
both sex sometimes manifest precocious sexual activity, 
which is greatly increased by evil- associates, immoral 
books, or inherited evil tendencies. 

As the mind acts reflexly upon the sexual organs, 
unhealthy sexual development is often induced by 
impure thoughts, giving desires for impure associations 
and indulgences, even when strong immoral tendencies 
were not inherited. Reading good books of high moral 
tone and acquiring knowledge of pure arts and sciences 
are very efficient preventives of such unhealthy condi- 
tions of mind and body, in either those who have or 
those who have not immoral parents. 

1 Carefully kept records of the health of educated women prove that intellectual 
pursuits tend to decrease the menstrual flow, thereby preventing congestion and 
disease of the pelvic organs. 



80 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

Hypochondria is the constant attention of one's mind 
upon self-exaggerating slight aches and pains, and creat- 
ing a diseased imagination, due mainly to idleness and 
dissipation. 

Abnormal imagination, associated with indolence, by 
first creating a disordered sensation, can create almost 
any ailment of the mind or body, by forcing an excessive 
flow of blood to the part of the body upon which the 
mind is centered; in time these causes result in disor- 
dered organic action. To remedy this disturbance, con- 
centrate the thoughts on some refining and agreeable 
subject ; keep the mind thus occupied as much as possi- 
ble until the disorder is overcome. In order to keep the 
mind and body well and healthy, a financial occupation 
should also be pursued. 

Reflex irritation of the higher nerve centre caused by 
diseased or displaced sexual organs, by some physicians 
is termed hysterics and by others extreme nervousness, 
due to the mind not possessing sufficient power over 
the body; the causes of this mental insufficiency are 
innumerable. 

Disease or displacement of the sexual organs cause 
morbid action of the nervous system, both local and 
general, exciting reflex irritation of the brain, and pro- 
duce nervousness, melancholy and even insanity. Pres- 
sure of different organs of the body or congested tissue 
pressing upon any nerve or set of nerves will cause dis- 
turbance which is immediately conveyed to the brain by 
the nerves. This constant and irritating pressure for 
months and years upon sensitive nerves easily explains 
woman's hysteria and irritability. Hysteria is used as 



PHYSICAL DEGENERACY 8l 

a common phrase, just as malaria or nervous prostration 
is suggested when a physician fails in diagnosticating a 
case. Nevertheless, male physicians should be excused, 
as it is impossible for them to understand nervous dis- 
eases of women, although many of them do "make a. 
specialty of female diseases." In very many medical 
books and journals there are certain male contributors 
who sneeringly comment upon the physical and mental 
weakness of women, and ridicule the idea of women 
studying medicine to become physicians for women. If 
women physicians should " make a specialty of male 
diseases," it would be considered an indecent practice, 
yet when men physicians make a specialty of women's 
diseases, it is just as ridiculous and immoral. 



CHAPTER IX 

PHYSICAL DEGENERACY — HEREDITARY TRANSMISSIONS 

Contents. — Parents should Study the Laws of Heredity. — Of Scrofula. — Yene- 
real Diseases. — Hysteria. — Epilepsy. — Inebriety. — Hypochondria. — Insan- 
ity. — The Diseased Habits of Every Kind are Inherited. — Leucorrhoea. — Men- 
struation. — Abnormal Habits. — Inherited and Acquired. — Disastrous Results 
Originate from Ignorance of the Laws of Health and the Cause of Disease. — 
False Ideas Concerning Marriage. — Immoral Teachings of Older Men Causes 
the Degeneracy of Younger Men. — Ignorant Women are Yictims of Sensual 
Men. 

Parents should study well the laws of heredity. 
Abnormal peculiarities of parents, whether of structure 
or functions, are very liable to be transmitted to their 
offspring". If hereditary disease makes its appearance 
at the time of birth it is said to be congenital. When 
some time elapses before there is any indication of 
inherited disease, until there has been some external 
cause to develop it, then it is said that the child has 
inherited a predisposition or tendency to the disease of 
its parents. 

Under the term "scrofula " are included a great variety 
of the inherited disorders, such as disease of the glands, 
blood and bones of the body. These diseased condi- 
tions are likely to recur throughout many generations. 
Yet when a diseased person persistently obeys physical 
and moral laws there is a strong tendency to develop 
towards a normal condition. In hereditary transmission, 
in children whose parents have had venereal disease, one 
child may be subject to leucorrhoeal discharges, another 



HEREDITARY TRANSMISSIONS. 8$ 

to hysteria, a third to hypochondria, a fourth may be- 
come a drunkard, a fifth an epileptic, or a sixth may 
become insane. Still worse, two of these diseases may 
be combined in one person, or may alternate in the 
same person. Thus hypochondria may drift into insan- 
ity, and as the insanity passes off the symptoms of 
hypochondria will again become prominent. 

Leucorrhceal discharge, which is commonly known as 
the "whites," is a symptom of an abnormal condition 
of the vagina, uterus or fallopian tubes. In a state of 
health there is a very slight secretion, but no considera- 
ble discharge. When the secretion becomes excessive 
and irritating, it is a symptom of disease ; this excretion 
has a peculiarly disagreeable odor, which should invari- 
ably be removed by syringing. 

Leucorrhcea may occur at any age. It is usually caused 
by inherited disease, or by neglect of proper care and 
attention in regard to cleanliness ; it may be caused also 
by pin-worms from the rectum that find their way into 
the vagina. Colds, irritating substances applied to the 
parts, and mechanical injuries are likewise responsible 
for many cases. Children born of diseased parents are 
especially liable to suffer from this ailment. Leucor- 
rhcea may be regarded, therefore, as catarrh of the ute- 
rus, fallopian tubes or of the vaginal mucous membrane, 
induced by innumerable causes, such as cold or damp- 
ness, from wearing thin-soled shoes, the lower limbs 
not being sufficiently clothed, exposure to drafts of cold 
air in outside closets, but gonorrhceal contagion is the 
most common source among women who have immoral 
husbands. 



84 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

It is not surprising how many women are affected 
with tumors and cancers when one realizes that in the 
past so few women used injections, especially wives who 
have for years absorbed diseased semen. Although this 
revolting subject is almost too disgusting to mention, 
yet while humanity is suffering more from evil sexual 
habit than any other cause, this subject must be un- 
derstood in order to prevent and avoid such serious 
consequences. 

Seminal discharges when retained almost invaribly 
cause inflammation or ulceration, and frequently tumors 
and cancer, and in time will poison the entire system. 1 
Leucorrhceal discharge varies in character from a white 
or yellow to a slightly greenish tinge, from a thin, milky 
fluid to a thick discharge, gelatinous in texture. Excre- 
tions like uncoagulated whites of eggs come from con- 
gested ovaries and fallopian tubes ; if such discharge is 
retained it becomes thickened, and causes tumorous con- 
ditions of the pelvic organs. 

Old and erroneous theories concerning menstruation 
were that the menstrual flow was a monthly purification ; 
that menstruation and ovulation occurred at the same 
time; therefore that unless women menstruated they 
could not conceive or bear children, the main object 

1 The spermatozoa contained in the semen of the male has sufficient vitality to 
reach the ovule at the extreme end of the fallopian tube where conception some- 
times occurs. When such an unfortunate accident happens, the ovum may escape 
into the abdominal cavity and develop, when it is termed " abdominal pregnancy." 
If instead the ovum develop within the fallopian tube, it is termed "tubal preg- 
nancy." Either case is a most serious condition. The scientific use of electricity 
early in such conditions is the most efficient and safe treatment. In later conditions, 
however, opening the abdomen is sometimes deemed necessary, as the retention of 
an abdominal ovum produces most serious results. 



HEREDITARY TRANSMISSIONS 85 

for which woman was supposed to have been created. 
Whether the menstrual flow continued three, four or ten 
days, or during half of the month, it was a sacred pro- 
cess, and nothing should be done to check it. 

Such an abnormal congestion of the uterus and ova- 
ries causes a shedding of the uterine membrane down 
to the muscular walls of the uterus, and a flow of blood 
pours from the vessels that supply the surface of the 
uterus, and hemorrhage ensues. This the ancients 
claimed should occur every month, beginning at the 
age of thirteen or even earlier, and continuing to 
the age of forty-five or fifty years. After this time a 
woman's life of usefulness was considered practically 
ended. As a natural result of this teaching and prac- 
tice, women in general became more and more affected 
with congestion, tumors and cancers, especially at the 
so-called "change of life." But time has proved that 
menstruation should not continue after forty years of 
age ; if it does, the flow is usually profuse and frequent. 

It is now admitted by good authority that menstrua- 
tion is the product of enervation, or physical weakness ; 
that anything which tends to debilitate the system or 
any organ of the body tends to develop habits of con- 
gestion, such as apoplexy, constipation, diarrhoea, hem- 
orrhage from the lungs and bowels, bladder, uterus, or 
ovaries. These habits once formed are easily continued 
for years, and from one generation to another. From 
various causes American women have formed the habit 
of excessive menstruation. In such abnormal process 
gradual congestion of the blood vessels of the pelvis 
takes place periodically, causing engorgement of all the 



86 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

pelvic organs and tissues. The blood is withdrawn from 
the general circulation just the same as occurs in con- 
gestion and hemorrhage of the lungs, or during the 
congestion of any other organ of the body. 

These periodical congestions and menstruations pro- 
duce lassitude and various maladies. Early and exces- 
sive menstruation arises from various causes, such as 
inherited tendencies, irregular habits, excess in any line 
of exercise, either in work or pleasure, indolence or lack 
of normal exercise, being confined in very warm rooms, 
highly seasoned food, overeating and the use of various 
alcoholic drinks, and late hours, excessive emotions such 
as are caused by dancing, reading sensational literature, 
etc. In fact, anything which degrades the mind will 
prove a voluptuous sensation ; and through the sympa- 
thetic nerves these emotions will cause the ovaries and 
uterus to congest, the breasts to enlarge, and fat to 
accumulate rapidly. 

Excessive menstruation frequently causes diseases of 
the ovaries and uterus and various kinds of tumors such 
as fibroid, cystic, or blood tumors. It also induces dis- 
placements of the uterus and ovaries. The displaced 
organs produce pressure upon the sympathetic or spi- 
nal nerves, causing numerous nervous affections. To 
correct this habit, as especially peculiar to American 
women, and to maintain health, menstruation should not 
begin earlier than fourteen and should cease at forty 
years of age. The flow should not be profuse, soiling 
not more than one small napkin each day. 

No woman should menstruate more than three days; 
two or even one would be better still ; only a slight dis- 



HEREDITARY TRANSMISSIONS Sy 

charge is necessary to relieve the congestion of the 
uterus. If care is taken to avoid as much as possible 
both standing and walking during the menstrual period, 
and to rest body and mind, the equilibrium of the circu- 
lation will be re-established. If such conditions were 
established, having all the organs in health and normal 
position, the habits of excessive menstruation and hem- 
orrhage would not be so prevalent as they now are, and 
would entirely cease in two or three generations. 

One of the most able writers on the subject of men- 
struation of women in various climates teaches that only 
a slight discharge is necessary, usually from the endo- 
metrium (or lining membrane of the uterus), to relieve 
the congestion, when the balance returns to the general 
circulation from whence it came. It is not the amount 
of blood in the body that causes the amount of conges- 
tion, nor does the amount of congestion determine the 
amount of flow; it is the complete or incomplete bal- 
ance between the congestion and the resistance to it, by 
which the amount of flow is regulated. The resistance 
consists in the amount of obstruction placed in the way 
of the flow, especially the contractive power of the 
uterus. If the degree of congestion and the opposed 
resistance are equally balanced, there w T ill be little or 
no flow. On the other hand, if the congestion pre- 
dominates over the resistance, the flow will be cor- 
respondingly profuse. If the congestion be feeble and 
the resistance marked, there will be little loss, if any; 
the slight congestion opposed by little or no resistance 
will result in considerable flow. A pronounced conges- 
tion meeting with strong resistance will be followed by 



S5 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

scarcely any flow; then such a condition could prove 

Serious. 

There are many degree? and varia:i:ns bemveen these 
extremes. Fr:m ",aha: has been said i: is no: dimeul: ::• 
see that in weak and nervous women, on account of the 
imperfect circulation, the congestion runs high in pro- 
portion to the amount of blood in the system, and on 
a: count of the weak muscular resistance the flow is 
great, while in strong and healthy women, from opposite 
c:na:::cns. :he h:~ is small. The bleed :ha: has :;:: 
fa e e n w asted mill slowly re : u r n into : h e gene ral circula- 
tion. How much, then, was intended by nature to be 
v.aas:ed in :his pr: zess : 

The ansmer is :ha: in a s:r:ng and healmy woman, a 
lime :niy; in a weak anaemi: v.-: man. nine a: ah. The 
mensmaal flow of women of the present day is greatly 
in - :;ess of the actual requirement, even though the 
la::er he manned entirely::' :he so-called physmlogdcal 

The constant repetition of menstruation has been 
caused by inherited weakness, excess of sexual inter- 
course, frequent pregnancy, finally that of such habits 
transmitted by inheritance to weaken generations. The 
robust woman stands the loss of a great quantity of 
blood apparently well during a long period of her men- 
strual life, yet the final result is that her constitution is 
undemnined ana rnbal rimer sajmea. I: :he annearanie 
of health exists, on closer investigation it will be found 
that the resemblance to health is nothing more than a 
mask for the am deriving symptoms denoting anaemia. 

If the great losses are hardly borne, even by strong 



HEREDITARY TRANSMISSIONS 89 

and apparently healthy women ; if with them this waste 
leads even to constitutional deprivation, how much more 
must this be the case of nervous, weak and anaemic 
women, who have a greater propensity to excessive flow- 
ing, because of their weakness and impoverished blood. 
Some of the evils consequent upon this uncalled-for 
waste are : neuralgia, neurasthenia, melancholy and anae- 
mia, with all their attending circulatory disturbances. 
To these must be added, also, uterine displacements, 
such as flexions and versions, and various kinds of 
abnormal growth and diseases of the uterine appendage, 
etc.; all these troubles may prove incurable without 
removal of the cause. 

Every practitioner can recall pitiful cases of broken- 
down constitutions, nervous to the verge of insanity, 
suffering from all ills that flesh is heir to ; under appro- 
priate treatment they improve until the next return of 
the menses, mercilessly destroys all that has been gained. 
Thus woman's existence is spent in making blood to be 
again uselessly spilled at the next menstrual period. 

However little the amount lost in a given case, it may 
be far greater than is admissible for the welfare of the 
individual, and it should be lessened or arrested without 
fear. The blood thrown into the pelvic blood-vessels 
constitutes the menstrual congestion; even if the con- 
gestion is great, only a small amount of flow is necessary 
to relieve the over-distention of the blood-vessels. When 
this is accomplished, the blood remaining may safely 
return to the general circulation, since it is not bad blood, 
as was formerly supposed. The quantity so reserved is 
fully as useful as a similar quantity gained by the use of 



90 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

tonics; the amount of blood saved not only lessens the 
amount usually lost, but diminishes the tendency to 
waste in the future. 

At times, it is not an easy task to overcome the super- 
stitions of a woman so as to gain her confidence and 
permission to decrease or check the menstrual flow. If 
history be true, men have establised these superstitious 
ideas and taught women to believe them, although women 
of the future will be neither so credulous nor so super- 
stitious as they have been in the past. It is even now 
gratifying to see with what facility the more intelligent 
class of women recognize the soundness of the practice 
when explained to them. If the estimate of the quantity 
of blood which should or may flow during the menstrual 
period is correct, it is pitiable to behold what quantity of 
life blood is wasted monthly. Without doubt in the 
future much of this waste will be arrested and used to a 
better purpose in the economy of life. 

Recent investigations have disclosed the fact that 
among the women of Greenland and Switzerland, also 
those living in certain mountainous regions of France, a 
complete suppression of the menses occurs during the 
winter season without causing the slightest disturbance 
of health. In Northern Russia, Norway, and Siberia 
menstruation does not occur until women have reached 
the age of nineteen or twenty years, and then perhaps 
only three or four times a year and with only a scanty 
flow. Inasmuch as such women retain their vigor of 
mind and body to a good old age. it is evident that the 
absence of menstruation is not detrimental ; on the con- 
trary, it insures good health. The clear, healthy com- 



HEREDITARY TRANSMISSIONS 91 

plexion of these women bears witness to the truth of this 
statement. Among the various tribes of Africa, where 
women are almost constantly in the open air, menstrua- 
tion occurs only at irregular periods, and then there is 
only a scanty flow of mucus scarcely tinged with blood. 
Nothing like the so-called menstruation takes place until 
after indiscriminate intercourse is practiced. 

A healthy body and mind, with regular mental and 
physical exercise, tends to delay puberty and to diminish 
the quantity of the menstrual flow when it occurs. 
Scientific observers now know that menstruation is not 
necessary, but rather a detriment to health. Although it 
is a pathological condition which will disturb the health 
so long as it exists, still to stop it suddenly would be 
serious; yet women as a race should gradually correct 
this detrimental habit. 

Mothers have been taught that profuse menstruation 
was indicative of health ; that it should occur in girls at 
the age of twelve or thirteen years; that if it failed to 
appear at that age or a little later, medicines should be 
given to cause congestion of the uterus and ovaries ; yet 
no examination is permitted for fear of the removal or 
tearing of the hymen. Such advice has caused not only 
the loss of health, but the lives of thousands of young 
girls. Women's ignorance concerning the anatomy of 
her own body and the laws which promote its normal 
conditions has been one of the great obstacles to 
woman's progress. 

Young girls who know almost nothing concerning the 
laws of health are frightened and disgusted by the sud- 
den appearance of the menstrual flow. The first infor- 



:: WOMAN AND DISEASE 

mation they receive is that if they get their feet damp or 
take a cold bath it will stop the flow, and since. they have 

no knowledge of the :; — ;: :v. t :". -r : . ". :: .:: : :: :: :'.\- :.:■.:.- 
gers connected -with it, they purposely stop the flow by 
these very means, and thus cause most disastrous results. 
Often before the nervous system has become accustomed 
to these frequent disturbances, much moie dreadful 
experiences follow. 

Daughters are ushered into the marriage state with 
scarcely any knowledge of what the majority of wives 
and mothers have suffered because of their ignorance 
concerning the laws of health and the cause of disease. 
Young girls are taught false ideas concerning marriage. 
It is customary for the daughter to be given away by the 
father to the one she marries, and she often gives herself, 
mind and body, to the legally made owner, who is con- 
scious of Ms power and his immorality as well as of her 
ignorance. 

Such young men have been taught by older men, and 
often by male physicians, that they must visit houses of 
prostitution and be initiated into the m mysteries of men's 
lives " ; that sexual intercourse is necessary for their 
health, etc. The morally and mentally weak are easily 
influenced into forming such habits, which invariably 
result in the contamination of their minds and bodies by 
the vilest and most loathsome dis t is t s. 7 r. - y : . - ;. r: 2 : '. y 
: : - r.\\ : : :-. iistist :i"itz r:~ :rrh:sr3 :r :.:.:: ~«'rl:r. ::::•- 
duces severe inflammation of the urethra, excruciating 
pain and physical disturbar.:e= '.:.- ::' .. ~r.:.e suzrtr- 
ing makes vows that he will never visit a house of pros- 
titution again. He calls upon a physician who has 



HEREDITARY TRANSMISSIONS 93 

himself been initiated ; he informs him that this attack 
will indeed be a benefit to his health, and that he will 
soon be all right again. Nevertheless, the victim pays 
exorbitant fees for his external healing. It is only exter- 
nal, for the system has been poisoned with a virus or 
disease germ which cannot be removed so long as his 
human body exists. When the suffering body and con- 
science has ceased for a time, he makes another visit, 
determined to be more careful this time ; yet after fre- 
quent visits he suffers again and again, until he re- 
solves to ensnare some ignorant and healthy girl into 
becoming his mistress or slave ; in time the scheme by 
which he secures for himself sensual pleasure and sup- 
posed health, causes a too great demand upon his purse 
or interferes with some social position, or he loses his 
mistress because she has found some one whose financial 
compensations are more liberal. 

Sooner or later almost every libertine resolves to 
marry, knowing that the laws of the country give a man 
power to rule his wife and compel her to submit to any 
insult or injustice for merely her support. He also con- 
siders that " being the head of a family " and a ruler of 
"his own house" will give him better social standing; he 
realizes, also, that his social standing must be secured by 
having the outward appearance of respectability. He 
may be a member of a club, but quite frequently he 
finds it to his advantage to unite with some church. 
Then he feels secure, and deludes his mind with the 
idea " that once in grace always in grace." 

After considering these supposed advantages of being 
a married man he sets out to secure his victim. It takes 



94 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

but a short time to find one among the " respectable 
families " where the daughters are not allowed to have a 
knowledge of humanity as it exists, or to understand the 
real motive of sensual men. Many daughters are taught 
that the sole object of their existence is to become as 
physically alluring and as attractively attired as possi- 
ble, in order to be secured as the legal wives of wealthy 
men whose moral characters are not to be considered. 
By these abnormal social conditions sensualists easily 
secure their victims. Physicians, ministers and men of 
the world know of this great sacrifice of young girls, 
allowed by social and political laws made by men. 
Every woman physician should at least inform mothers 
of this injustice, and its terrible physical and mental 
consequences. 



CHAPTER X 

PHYSICAL DEGENERACY — MAN'S ALLEGED CAUSE 

Contents. — The Ideas of Some Male Writers concerning Women. — Cause of 
Divorce. — "Contrary to the Views of the Creator that Woman should become 
Man's Equal." — Woman should bow to Man's Authority, as no Woman is 
either our Equal or our Superior. — The Fallacy of such Statements. — Woman 
has demonstrated the Fact that She is fully Able to compete with Man Finan- 
cially and Intellectually. — Women are no Longer Dependent upon Men for 
Position or Support. — Men as a Race have ever been opposed to Woman's 
Education. — Men's Theologies have not considered Woman's Positions in Life 
Equal to that which Stock-breeders consider their Breeding Stock. — The 
Women of the Nineteenth Century are beginning to comprehend the Situation 
of their Social and Political Positions. — A Male Physician's Assumed Knowledge 
of the Physical Degeneracy of "American Women." — American Sterility. — 
American Woman's Aversion to Child-bearing. — It is their Aversion to being 
Mere Breeders and Subjects of Sensual Men that the Intelligent American 
Women do object. — Every Student of Human Nature recognizes the Fact 
that as a Rule the Least Civilized Races have the Largest Families. — It is not 
Possible for Parents to care as Well for Eight or Twelve Children as they can 
for Two or Four. 

Some of the male members of the human family have 
complained so long concerning woman's degeneracy, 
that it has for centuries caused women to feel that they 
alone were to blame for the sufferings of humanity. So 
long as women were kept in ignorance concerning men's 
diseases and moral shortcomings this complaint passed 
into traditional acceptance. One male writer says a 
wife that is not physically a woman cannot make a man 
happy, — that is if she does not gratify his sexual desires. 
Another says the ill health of wives in directions pecu- 
liar to their own sex is a great source of unhappiness in 
married life. It is often directly or indirectly the cause 



96 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

of divorces. Thus the study of the faculty of either sex 
shows there is no identity in them, no equality. Surely 
nothing could be more contrary to the views of the 
Creator than to wish woman to become man's equal; 
woman should bow to man's authority, as no woman is 
either our equal or our superior. 

A male professor of diseases of women stated to a 
large class of students that woman's brain is too small 
for intellect. Although this instructor had an unusually 
small head, he did not seem to be conscious that he also 
possessed a very small brain. 

Every one, man or woman, who learns what woman's 
position has been and is at the present, realizes the fal- 
sity of such teachings. The present, as well as the past, 
proves that women are as capable of intellectual develop- 
ment as men, although men have tried to establish the 
contrary as truth in every century since the creation. 
By her intellectual and executive ability woman has 
demonstrated that she is fully able to compete with man. 
Queens have ruled nations with as great wisdom as 
kings ; women have led armies as successfully as men ; 
and in every occupation which requires mental ability 7 , 
woman has proved man's equal. The competition 
between man and woman in every executive and intel- 
lectual position in this present century is demonstrating 
the fact that women are excelling men in these lines. 

Women in studying the existing system of sociology 
find it neither agreeable nor entertaining, because of the 
degraded condition of the race caused by unjust laws 
creating and protecting the social evil for which men are 
responsible, as they have so persistently opposed woman's 



MAN S ALLEGED CAUSE 97 

assistance in making and enforcing just laws. Women 
have learned that man's opposition to woman's education 
was due to selfishness and fear that she might learn 
something concerning his moral and physical defects, 
and thereby become aware of the cause of so much 
suffering and degradation of the race, which men have 
always insisted that Mother Eve and her daughters had 
caused and perpetuated. 

Intelligent women can no longer be prevented from 
gaining knowledge of their own physical conditions or 
of the physical degeneracy of men, which so seriously 
effect their children's health as well as their own, as they 
are no longer dependent upon man for their social 
position and support ; they scorn the idea of being asso- 
ciated with men of diseased morals. Neither does ridicule 
interfere with progress as it once did. Men have so long 
been considering the mental and physical defect of 
woman, that they have neglected correcting their own 
faults. In order to understand the cause of the abnormal 
condition of the race, women are now studying physi- 
cal, moral and mental degeneracy, and also by the aid 
of intuition which man so condescendingly accorded 
women, they have already recognized the fact that the 
degeneracy of the human race commenced when man 
monopolized social and political powers, and as a natural 
result they were not able alone to control these powers 
for the good of humanity. So long as man could keep 
woman's attention upon her own imperfections, he knew 
that she would not detect his numerous faults, but the 
dose of ridicule and dictation concerning woman's men- 
tal inferiority, was given in such an overdose that they 



98 



WOMAN AND DISEASE 



have caused a reaction ; so much so that the women of 
the nineteenth century from the practical experience they 
have acquired, are beginning to think and act independ- 
ently of men's dictation. Although they have been seeing 
" as through a glass darkly," they will soon come face to 
face more clearly, and with more scientific knowledge 
upon which to base their judgment, than men have had. 

A male physician recently circulated widely a pamphlet 
which he had written upon " The Physical Degeneracy 
of American Women. " He says the wrecks of women 
everywhere should prompt us to a thorough investiga- 
tion of the cause which has wrought such sad results ; 
the evidence of dry rot in the American life has begun 
to appear, caused by women trying to shirk the duties of 
maternity. He should have said it was due to very 
active contagion of venereal diseases which wives have 
contracted from their contaminated husbands. He asks, 
Why do the American females make such poor wet 
nurses or milk producers, compared with the emigrants 
from Ireland and Germany? 

It is not surprising that some male physicians censure 
intelligent women for not being able to compete with the 
lower animals in this line, as their own ideas of women 
have not evolved many evolutions. The above investi- 
gator fails to recognize the fact that the most prolific 
progenitors and milk producers are generally of a scrof- 
ulous diathesis, while the thoroughbred's do not degen- 
erate into habits of sexual intercourse and frequent 
pregnancies, which interfere with superior development. 

In this man's greatest research concerning woman, he 
observes that the advancing civilization is particularly 



MAN S ALLEGED CAUSE 99 

hard on women, while the exact truth of this statement 
can only be verified by an extensive and exhaustive study 
of the statistics and rapid growth of genecology, caused 
by the prevalency of venereal diseases. 

A New York medical journal recently contained two 
articles concerning women. The subject of the one 
article "American Sterility" is a production of a pro- 
fessor of gynecology 7 . It reads that the obstetrician finds 
his vocation among American women disappearing from 
the face of the earth. It is a fact the American family 
with more than one or two children is the exception. 
From the records of six generations' of families in some 
New England town, it was found that the families com- 
prising the first generation had on an average from eight 
to ten children ; the next three generations averaged 
about seven to each family; the fifth generation less than 
three for each family. The generation now on the stage 
is not doing so well. 

What are the causes for this small proportion of chil- 
dren ? Disease, prevention of conception, and abortion 
form the trinity of responsibility in these grave con- 
ditions. It is true that the first cause (disease) results 
in many women being barren, but I believe you will 
agree with me that the last two causes — prevention of 
conception and abortions — are the two chief causes; 
through the diffusion of the laws of sanitation, improved 
dietary, and advanced therapeutics, the longevity of 
man is increasing, but the American woman's aversion 
to child-bearing is blighting our civilization, and can 
well be named the twentieth-century curse. A large 
proportion of American young women who marry do so 



100 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

with the determination that they will have no children. 
They are abetted in this notion by many elderly women. 
The cure for this terrible sentiment is education. The 
home, the press, the schoolroom, and the pulpit should 
be centres for reviving the ancient idea of the nobility 
of motherhood. The physician should not under- 
estimate his influence. By constantly bearing in mind 
the dangers of the present tendencies, he can do much 
to change the current. Let us hope we will again see 
the day when thoughtful motherhood shall be con- 
sidered the highest function of womanhood, and to shirk 
this natural duty will be deemed a sin. 

This writer does not seem to recognize the fact that 
quality is more desirable than quantity. A few children 
well born and well bred are much more desirable than 
a great number born only to early succumb to inherited 
disease. Every student of human nature recognizes the 
fact that as a rule the least civilized races have the 
largest families, and as a rule the parents of such 
families are either deficient in education or in self- 
control. Intelligent parents are not willing to have 
more children than they are able to supply with good 
health and education. It is not possible for parents to 
care as well for eight or twelve children as they can for 
two or four. If a mother has several children, she is 
compelled to neglect herself or her children in nume- 
rous ways. Many mothers will not acknowledge this, 
but if they investigate their conditions of health and 
education, they will discover one or both neglected more 
or less. 

Very few mothers in the past centuries were to blame 



MAN S ALLEGED CAUSE 101 

for having more children than they could care for well, 
because of their ignorance of the laws of health. 
Women are now making greater efforts to acquire 
intelligence concerning these laws and what is just to 
their children, as well as to themselves. This writer on 
"American Sterlity" seems to favor the Spartan mode 
of increasing the population, as he states that Lycurgus 
proclaimed laws to favor population. In that country 
a man with three sons was exempt from night watch, 
and he who had four was freed from taxation and all 
public duties. Louis XIV. gave pensions to those who 
had ten and twelve children. 

Men usually give themselves the credit of having chil- 
dren, although they suffer very little inconvenience dur- 
ing the process. The day will come when man must 
evolve beyond his mere animal nature before he is per- 
mitted to become a father. If propagating is woman's 
highest function, she should attend to its normal condi- 
tions, and prevent sexual intercourse and conception 
occurring when healthy children cannot be brought into 
existence. 

If the " American woman's aversion to child-bearing is 
blighting our civilization, and can well be named the 
twentieth-century curse," what can be said of the con- 
tamination of men by venereal diseases which wives 
contract from their husbands, and children inherit from 
fathers. Every physician knows that venereal diseases 
destroy the lives of more men, women and children 
every year than any other cause, and that not only 
"American woman's sterility" but American man's ster- 
ility is in a great majority of cases caused by diseases 
which men have contracted in houses of prostitution. 



102 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

The writer of the second article in the above-named 
journal writes on the subject of " Gonorrhoea in Gyne- 
cology." He insists upon the importance of informing 
the laity of the dangers of latent gonorrhoea. He states 
that the man who has once had gonorrhoea should never 
marry unless he had first consulted a specialist in vene- 
real diseases. If greater care were taken in such things, 
there would be much less suffering in women, and much 
less occasion for the formidable gynecological operations. 

As gonorrhoea is admitted to be the most frequent 
cause of woman's suffering, sterility and disease, and the 
cause of so many formidable operations, it is quite time 
that women were aware of the fact, also that they are 
not entirely to blame for their abnormal conditions. 
Years of medical practice among women gives a woman 
physician an opportunity to hear the expressions of 
women concerning the subject of motherhood. Invari- 
ably wives among all classes express a desire for children. 
The more intelligent women always say one or two chil- 
dren, as they are sufficiently well versed in heredity to 
know that one or two children is a sufficient number to 
successfully correct their evil tendencies and to educate 
into moral and upright characters, in order that they 
may be a blessing instead of a detriment to humanity. 



CHAPTER XL 

MENTAL DEGENERACY. 1 

Contents. — Immoral Type of Insanity especially affects Men. — The Emotional 
Type of Insanity especially affects Women. — Causes of Both Forms. — Epi- 
lepsy. — Cause. 

Close investigation proves that mental disease more 
often occurs in men than in women ; nevertheless, male 
physicians from the time of Hippocrates to the present 
time have been trying to convince the world that 
women have smaller brains and weaker intellects ; that 
they are more prone to insanity, and their defects are 
more liable to be transmitted to their children. Yet 
with all effort in that direction their assertions cannot 
be substantiated. The immoral type of insanity, or 
sensuality, especially affects men; "hysteria," or the 
emotional type, prevails mainly among women. 2 Men- 
tal degeneracy, which often results in general paralysis, 
is a disease even more prevalent among men than 
" hysteria " is among women ; it is commonly caused by 
unrestrained sexual indulgences, which invariably result 
in some form of venereal disease that destroys the 
nervous system. 

Immoral insanity, or general paralysis, destroys thou- 
sands every year, chiefly men in the prime of life. It is 

1 Statements from the best authorities on mental diseases. 

2 Women should be able to recognize the cause of immoral insanity in man as well 
as to recognize the cause of emotional insanity in women, in order that they 
may avoid becoming the victims of either. 



104 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

said to present three stages: first, exalted delusion, in 
which the victim thinks himself the head of the family. 
He imagines he literally owns his wife, soul, body and 
property. He considers women weak, and in every way 
inferior to man ; indeed, he only tolerates her for con- 
venience a.nd as a means by which he may raise "his 
children. " He gradually becomes more and more tyran- 
nical, causing his wife and children to abhor him. 
What little money he is compelled to spend for them 
he doles out, making them feel like beggars and paupers ; 
yet the money he uses for his own gratification is spent 
freely; he imagines he can easily afford one or more 
mistresses, tobacco and alcoholic drinks, and whatever 
suits his sensual desires. Not unfrequently he is a "hail 
fellow, well met, among the boys," among whom he 
delights to tell vulgar stories and make disgusting re- 
marks about women. He is quite satisfied with himself 
in every way, says " he is irresistible with the ladies, " 
yet sooner or later he succumbs, a victim to his own 
sensual habits, which have caused disease of the brain, 
and finally death. 

In hospitals for insane women investigation reveals the 
fact that there is a similar type of immoral insanity 
among women who have become victims of venereal 
diseases ; but in cases of emotional insanity among 
women there is an absence of disease of the brain. 

Pre-existing functional derangement of the digestive 
and pelvic organs are to be looked upon as primary causes 
of disturbance of the nervous system in emotional in- 
sanity. Tumors of the uterus and ovaries are often 
found in connection with insanity, and delusions, even 



MENTAL DEGENERACY IO5 

neuralgia may be followed by insanity, the pain vanish- 
ing during the mental disturbance, the neuralgia reap- 
pearing as the insanity passes away. Such conditions 
are excited by nervous disturbances caused by the dis- 
placement of different organs of the body, mental 
excitement, or worry, overwork and long-continued con- 
finement at home. Sexual excess and too frequent 
child-bearing are likewise recognized as prevailing causes 
of emotional insanity. Some may undergo mental strain 
without any severe mental results ; with others a slight 
mental or physical disturbance may cause insanity. 

To discover the cause, one must know the history of 
ancestors two or three generations back, as well as the 
individual history of the patient. Severe mental shock 
often causes immediate disturbance of the brain, rapid 
molecular changes in the nerve centres, and in conse- 
quence, a determination of blood to the head ; even the 
muscular structures may be set in motion, causing in- 
voluntary agitations, such as trembling and crying, or 
pacing the room, rocking violently, or wringing the 
hands. All such acts imply a continued change going 
on in the nerve centres ; the weaker the will and judg- 
ment of the patient, the more violent will be the extreme 
manifestations. 

Emotional insanity may result in softening and disor- 
ganization of the brain structure, due to inflammation ; 
it may be caused in either sex by distressing poverty, 
immorality in husband or wife, prodigal children, con- 
stant anxiety in business of speculative character, or by 
perpetual craving ambition, with frequent disappoint- 
ments. A constant strain upon the nervous system 



106 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

with excessive emotions and excessive expenditures 
going on for years, while the nerve centres are exposed 
to a greater amount of change than they can bear, cause 
melancholy, monomania or insanity. These and a thou- 
sand other miseries of human life destroy reason and fill 
asylums. There are innumerable causes for insanity, 
but the majority of the causes are venereal diseases, 
inherited or acquired. 

Epilepsy is now believed to be a discharge or explo- 
sion of unstable nerve-force from the material of the 
higher nerve centres. The degree of the discharge of 
force and the extent to which cerebral centres are in- 
volved will determine the effect and the duration of the 
convulsions. It may be some time before the brain force 
is restored to its normal state, in which the various cen- 
tres are in a state of equilibrium. The more numerous 
the attacks, the more likely is the mania to supervene. 

When dementia occurs from chronic epilepsy it is not 
always due to structural changes, for it is marvelous how 
some, long lost in speechless idiocy, recover intelligence 
and power, if by some remedy the convulsions are 
arrested. Convulsions prevent the accumulation of 
nerve-force in adequate quantity, but if convulsions 
cease, the nerve-force is again restored to the higher 
nerve centres. In violent and frequent convulsions the 
whole force of the entire cerebral system is discharged. 
When the attack is slight, consciousness is not lost for 
more than a moment. There are many instances re- 
corded similar to the following: 

A woman admitted to an asylum in the year i860 was 
described as one of the "total imbeciles." She was 



MENTAL DEGENERACY IO7 

unconscious of everything and every person about her. 
She was then thirty years of age, having had epileptic 
convulsions from the age of nine years, and having 
become insane at the age of twenty-three. She re- 
mained epileptic and insane until 1872, when she suf- 
fered from an attack of acute rheumatism, followed by 
chronic rheumatic arthritis. From June, 1872, she had 
no convulsions, and in November, 1875, sne was bright, 
cheerful and happy, rational in conversation, and intelli- 
gently employed. With the cessation of the convul- 
sions the mind and memory returned after even so long 
a period as fifteen years. 

" Operators " of today advise the removal of the 
ovaries as a treatment for women who have epilepsy, yet 
they seldom mention that diseased testicles are equally 
fruitful causes of this disease among men, and should be 
removed to cure the ailment. Removing the ovaries 
very seldom cures insanity. 



CHAPTER XII 

SOCIAL DEGENERACY. — GONORRHOEA 

Contents. — Gonorrhoea, Chancroid and Syphilis Originate from Impure Sexual 
Intercourse. — The Social Evil existing from the Remotest Ages. — Debasing 
Habits cause Revolting and Dangerous Diseases. — Danger of Contagion. — 
Gonorrhoea prepares the Way for all Other Venereal Diseases. — The Most Con- 
tagious of all Contagious Diseases. — Gonorrhoea the most Common Ailment 
among Men. — The Disease Germ never entirely removed from the System. — 
Develops Serious Conditions in their Children from the most Trivial Assumed 
Causes, as a Slight Fall, etc. — Records of Latent Gonorrhoea in Women. 

The most common cause of social degeneracy is due 
to venereal diseases, 1 which comprise gonorrhoea, chan- 
croid and syphilis. They originate from impure sexual 
intercourse, and are traceable to the remotest antiquity. 
The effects of venereal diseases have been extremely 
far-reaching in their detrimental effects upon the human 
race. These loathsome maladies have been most potent 
factors in causing human degeneracy, which has reached 
such appalling prevalence in this age. As the social 
evil has existed among the races from the remotest ages, 
one can scarcely fail to recognize the cause of woman's 
degradation socially, physically and politically. 

The first and most potent factor not only in the deg- 
radation of woman, but of the human race, has been the 
habit of sexual intercourse when conception is not de- 
sired. Any observer of the laws of health can readily 
understand that sexual intercourse should not occur, 

1 Notes taken from late authenticated works on venereal disease, also from clini- 
cal and general practice. 

108 



GONORRHOEA IO9 

unless normal legitimate children are intelligently pre- 
pared for by normal parents. 

Venereal diseases are the result both of excessive and 
promiscuous sexual intercourse which has for ages been 
practiced. These habits have originated the most re- 
volting and dangerous diseases known to humanity. 

Not only parents, but all adults and children should be 
informed of the extreme danger and active contagion of 
venereal diseases. 1 Any person is in danger of coming 
in contact with virus in various ways: from drinking- 
cups, towels, clothing, promiscuous kissing, or sexual 
intercourse. Venereal diseases do not spare even the 
unborn, but are ever ready to attack as soon as concep- 
tion takes place. Women should gain intelligent knowl- 
edge of these diseases and how to avoid them. 

Gonorrhoea, the primary venereal disease, is distin- 
guished by various symptoms from the chancroid and 
syphilis, although it prepares the system to produce 
chancroid, which primarily is a local disease of a more 
revolting type. The effects of chancroid upon human- 
ity in turn prepared the race for syphilis, a most virulent, 
contagious, inoculable and incurable disease. 

The origin of gonorrhceal disease is the effect of 
impure sexual intercourse, and sexual intercourse is 
always impure unless it occurs as a means of producing 
normal conception. 2 

1 In a certain workshop in Camden, N. J., a towel used by a syphilitic workman 
conveyed the disease to three men who had used it. In each instance the disease 
was primarily manifested in the form of interstitial keratitis, or syphilitic sore eyes. 
Such diseases are of common occurrence in promiscuous association. 

2 Sexual instinct is merely a physicial condition existing in vegetables and animals 
as a means of perpetuating the species, just as their desire for food is an instinct to 
perpetuate their bodies; yet both of these instincts when they become abnormal, 
destroy the species. In the human specie intelligence should control. 



110 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

The word gonorrhoea is derived from two Greek words 
meaning " semen " and " to flow. " In its latest chronic 
form it is termed blennorrhoea. This specific disease 
involves primarily the urethra of the male and the 
vagina of the female. Its acute attacks produce pain 
and swelling of the mucous membrane and the forma- 
tion of pus, which is not only poisonous to any mucous 
surface, but is also extremely contagious; it is caused 
by the gonococcus germs, which, during the disease, 
invade all parts of the genito-urinary tract. If a particle 
of the gonorrhceal discharge enters the eye accidently, 
the poison is so rapid in its course that it often causes 
the destruction of the eye within a day. 1 

Owing to the severe inflammation of the mucous 
membrane it becomes highly sensitive, and when con- 
fined to the urethra the passage of urine is attended 
with extreme pain and scalding sensation. 

Even* practitioner knows that gonorrhoea is the most 
common ailment among men. One of the latest and 
most thoroughly scientific investigators of this disease 
says, that out of every one thousand men, eight hundred 
have gonorrhoea. Of every hundred women who have 
married men formerly affected with gonorrhoea, scarcely 
ten remain seemingly unaffected, and these suffer from 
various ailments that gonorrhoea has indirectly produced. 

A woman who, at any time of her life, has had an 
acute gonorrhoea, has to expect sometime, it may be 
after months or years, one or more attacks of acute, 
sub-acute, or chronic perimetritis. The wife of a man 
who, at any time of his life, before marriage, has suf- 

1 Gonorrhoeal opthalmia is probably the chief cause of congenital blindness. 



GONORRHOEA III 

fered from gonorrhoea is, with regard to an attack of 
perimetritis, in the same position as if she herself had 
had acute gonorrhoea. Under these two groups of 
circumstances such a woman must expect at some time 
or other in her life to become the subject of a pelvic 
inflammation, some times ending only at death. 

After the inflammatory stage of the disease is passed, 
which varies from four to five weeks, there is left a dis- 
charge known as gonorrhoea mucous, or gleet, which 
remains infectious for months and years, even though 
discharge is not attended with pain or scalding. It has 
been proved conclusively that this poison is never en- 
tirely removed from the body of the person who has once 
had gonorrhoea. It is an established fact that gonorrhoea 
can exist without the demonstrable presence of gono- 
cocci. The absence of the gonococcus proves nothing 
against the gonorrhceal disease. If these germs cannot 
be found they may have been somewhere broken up, 
whilst a ferment produced by them may still be active ; 
or they are absent from the secretions while present in 
the tissues. The virus of this disorder gives rise to a 
group of diseases, whose physical and moral conse- 
quences surpass in importance any other class of affec- 
tions. 

In Germany, in recent years, a large amount of experi- 
mental work has been done, and much clinical evidence 
has been collected concerning gonorrhceal diseases; but 
in England and America, on the contrary, it has been 
fearfully neglected. As a rule, some of the American 
male physicians express the opinion that as a specific 
disease, there is little or no scope for treatment of it in 



112 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

the female. Physicians are called upon to treat only the 
advanced stages. One would expect, under the circum- 
stances, an opportunity of averting the disease, but the 
opportunity is almost invariably denied. The guilty 
husband hopes for the best, and believes that if he can 
deny and conceal, the wife, even though affected, can 
never be quite sure of the cause, whatever her suspicions 
may be. The husband puts off taking the steps which 
would procure suitable treatment for the wife until 
some serious symptoms set in. 

Gonorrhceal inflammation once reaching the ovaries 
and involving them, ends only at death. If it comes to 
an acute manifestation of the affection, the case usually 
takes something like the following course : The hus- 
band, having contracted gonorrhoea, sooner or later 
infects the wife, even if prior to this the disease has 
apparently disappeared without leaving a trace, it leaves 
him capable of conveying the contagion. Finally the 
heretofore healthy wife begins to feel weak and ill. At- 
tention to her domestic duties becomes a burden to her, 
and pedestrian exercise, which could formerly be taken 
without the least effort, now gives fatigue. Menstrua- 
tion becomes more profuse than formerly, and there are 
pelvic pains during the first days of the menstrual 
periods. A little vaginal discharge follows each period, 
generally increases, ultimately continues without inter- 
mission until the next menstrual period begins. After a 
few months, really severe pains come on, usually in the 
left half of the pelvic region, and, on account of the 
feverishness and unbearable burning in the abdomen, 
with increased discharge, the sufferer is ultimately com- 



GONORRHCEA 113 

pelled to go to bed and send for medical help. The 
severity of the attack varies ; she remains confined to 
her bed for* weeks or perhaps months, with exhausted 
strength, struggling for life and only partially recovering, 
remaining sterile and an invalid the rest of her days. 

It not unfrequently happens that the woman who 
marries a contaminated man under such circumstances 
soon becomes pregnant; during her pregnancy she suf- 
fers from derangement of the pelvic organs, which are 
supposed by herself to be due to and concommitant with 
her pregnancy ; and so she receives no particular atten- 
tion. It sometimes happens that the symptoms become 
so urgent as to call for active treatment in order to pre- 
vent miscarriage. Labor ultimately comes on and is 
followed by a severe endometritis or inflammation of the 
lining membrane of the uterus, or with perimetritis, 
the inflammation of the peritoneal covering of the 
uterus and ovaries. The development of this inflamma- 
tion may begin immediately after the confinement, or, 
as is more frequently the case, it may come on in eight to 
fourteen days, or even several weeks after confinement. 

It is a peculiar fact that some women directly after 
marriage with a man who formerly had gonorrhoea begin 
to exhibit symptoms of serious inflammation, while 
others may be years before they emerge from the latent 
period ; still others again show such trifling departures 
from the normal condition that it is difficult to say 
whether they are affected or not. It might be set down 
as a law of this disease, that the earlier the first sexual 
intercourse occurs after the time when the gonorrhoea 
was pronounced cured, the shorter is the period of 



114 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

latency in the woman, and the more acute are the 
symptoms. 

We will give only a few cases recorded in medical 
works from the most scientific contributors as examples. 1 

One writer says a Mrs. M , when I first saw her, had 

been married five years. Her husband about one year 
before their marriage had undergone two months' treat- 
ment for gonorrhoea. The wife before marriage was a 
type of robust health and beauty. Soon after marriage 
she began to have ailments; she remained sterile and 
suffered with pain during her menstrual periods. After 
a year she consulted a physician, who performed an 
operation of incision of the cervix, with the object of 
curing the sterility. This proceeding was followed by 
severe hemorrhage ; on the following day pain began, 
and gradually increased to an enormous severity. The 
doctor in attendance found that the case was an acute 
perimetritis. The patient was confined to her bed for 
two or three months ; never since that time has she had 
a day's good health. She consulted one after another of 
the principal gynecologists of New York and Boston; 
by one she was cauterized for ulcer of the cervix; an- 
other applied a large blister to the hypogastrium (the 
lower part of the abdomen) on account of chronic 
metritis of the uterus; and a third made her wear an 
intra-uterine pessary for two months. 

A careful examination revealed the following facts: 
The uterus was antroverted and but slightly moveable ; 
the left ovary was small, hard and firm, and fixed in 
the pelvis by adhesion ; the right ovary, lying deeper, 

1 Drs. Noeggerath, Neisser, Rycord, Sinclair, Lawson Tait, and others. 



GONORRHOEA I I 5 

was greatly swollen, rounded and softened, and both 
ovaries were intensely painful to touch. This patient 
suffered inexpressibly during four years, medicine seem- 
ing to produce little effect upon her condition. She 
visited German watering-places, and consulted gyne- 
cologists in Paris during her two seasons abroad. On 
her return she felt better in many respects, but by no 
means completely restored to health. 

Another case was that of a Mrs. F , a well-devel- 
oped and beautiful woman ; her husband had been under 
treatment for a rather obstinate gonorrhoea, but in whom 
for three months before his marriage, not a trace of the 
disease was to be seen. He was assured that it was 
quite safe for him to marry, and he acted on the advice. 
All went well for about six weeks, and then the wife 
began to complain of a pain in the side, which at last 
increased to such an extent that she was confined to her 
bed. Her husband's doctor was then consulted ; he 
diagnosticated pelvic peritonitis, which he treated ener- 
getically. The patient remained in bed for two months. 
Then follows the history of ten years of bad health, 
varied with periods of more acute suffering. 

The next case is that of a woman whose husband, 
when a bachelor, had suffered from gonorrhoea, which 
required many months of treatment, but it had disap- 
peared for two years before marriage. Ten months after 
marriage the wife was confined with a healthy child, and 
since that time she has never become pregnant. Soon 
after her confinement she began to complain of pains 
in her left side, and a sense of weakness in the pelvis. 
Then followed wanderings in search of health from one 



Il6 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

European health resort to another, then back again to 
America. In this case there were six distinct attacks of 
pelvic inflammation. Digital examination proved the 
existence of enlarged ovaries, and a general matting 
together of the pelvic organs. 

A typical case of acute gonorrhceal contagion is 
recorded of a man who, after he had been married a 
short time, visited a neighborhood where he met a 
woman acquaintance of his bachelor days. Within forty- 
eight hours he came to his physician in terrible distress 
with the initial symptoms of gonorrhoea, but with a still 
more terrible dread that he might have conveyed it to 
his wife. His attack proved very trifling, and passed off 
in less than a week. Wishing to take his annual holi- 
day, he brought his wife to the physician to make sure 
that she was free from disease, and he could not find the 
slightest trace of inflammation of the vagina. He there- 
fore sanctioned their traveling to a considerable distance, 
but within three days this physician was summoned to 
her and found her suffering from a most severe attack of 
inflammation of the left ovary. After some weeks she 
recovered, though the left ovary had become as large as 
a small orange, firmly fixed and very sensitive. Sud- 
denly the right ovary became similarly affected, and 
after a most severe illness, during which she seemed 
frequently at the point of death, she partially recovered, 
with the right ovary similarly large and fixed. She 
never menstruated after this second illness, and she now 
lives a semi-invalid life, hardly ever free from pain, and 
unfit for any exertion. 

Another typical case is that of a woman who ten days 



GONORRHOEA 117 

after marriage was seized with sharp pain in the hypo- 
gastrium, just over the uterus, and though she got up 
and dressed she could not walk, and was compelled to 
spend some days on a couch ; she then sought medical 
assistance. The pain in the pelvis continued ; she was 
treated for inflammation of the bowels, and remained 
under treatment four weeks, when she was considered 
cured. She had hardly attempted to attend to her 
domestic duties when her illness returned, but she went 
on for nearly a month without further treatment. She 
looked very ill, and, in answer to inquiries, said that she 
had lost flesh rapidly since the beginning of her illness. 

An interview with her husband brought from him the 
following history: seven years before he had become 
affected w T ith gonorrhoea for the first time, and appeared 
to have a very bad attack. He was in the hands of a 
quack, and also of several other medical men in suc- 
cession; he seemed to have been cured, and about 
twelve months after the first symptoms of the disease, 
every trace had apparently passed away. Soon after the 
gonorrhoea appeared to be cured he married. In the 
course of time his wife had a child, and died of puerperal 
or child-bed fever. 

The child survived, but was under medical treatment 
from its birth ; as the husband was abroad on business, 
at the time of his wife's death he remained away for 
several years; he could, therefore, give no details con- 
cerning this period of the child's illness. 

At the time of his second marriage both he and his 
second wife were perfectly well. Two months after 
marriage the latter became ill without any apparent 



Il8 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

cause. The husband began to suffer from urethritis, 
which came on four weeks after the marriage, and at 
the time of the first interview with him, had developed, 
though under treatment three weeks or more, into 
rather a severe attack of gonorrhoea, although gonococci 
could not be detected in the discharge. The wife was 
kept under treatment for more than three months, 
considering herself well at the end of that time, but 
although the uterus was then movable, the thickening 
of the peritoneum was distinct. There was a peculiar 
loss of elasticity across the pelvic floor and a deep-lying 
sense of resistance. Probably both tubes were ruined; 
the fimbriae, the fringed ends of the fallopian tubes, 
w T ere matted together, or were adherent to the ovary, 
and abdominal orifices closed. The menstruation con- 
tinued to be abnormally profuse. 

These are only a few fair examples of the many cases 
occurring ever} 7 day, and any practicing physician can 
relate many similar instances. All have these three 
points in common. They are ailments which entirely 
destroy the health of wives ; and they show a history of 
gonorrhoea in the husband which is brought out in a 
more or less convincing fashion as the cause of the 
wife's suffering ; it also points to the fact that gonorrhoea 
is a common cause of sterility in both man and woman ; 
that gonorrhoeal germs — the gonococci — remains in the 
system for the remainder of the victim's life, in spite of 
apparent cures. 

The gonococci disappears and reappears in the excre- 
tions, according to the victim's state of health; they 
enter the white blood corpuscles and penetrate into the 



GONORRHCEA 119 

blood-vessels, and from there push on into the connec- 
tive tissues. Latent gonorrhoea in the woman mani- 
fests itself in the course of time by perimetritis, acute 
and chronic, or by ovaritis, or catarrh of some portions 
of the genital mucous membrane. Being specific in its 
nature, it produces an infectious catarrh of the genital 
organs. From the discharge of women affected with 
latent gonorrhoea a micrococcus may be cultivated, 
which is exactly analogous to that obtained from the 
discharge of acute gonorrhoea in the man. The wives 
of men who have at any time of their lives had this 
disease do not usually become pregnant until after long 
courses of medical treatment. Such women, if they do 
become pregnant, often miscarry. 

In considering the chronic, creeping form of gonor- 
rhoeal infection in women, let us take the facts of a few 
typical cases, presented by a noted physician : a year or 
less after marriage a young woman finds that her health 
has undergone a serious change for the worse, whereas, 
before marriage, she was as sound in health and active 
as in childhood. She has now lost her buoyancy, her 
sense of physical well being, and is distressed by un- 
wonted pains and discharges. She has a persistent 
leuchorrhceal discharge, suffering from painful menstru- 
ation more or less severe, and her menstrual periods, 
formerly painless and regular in occurrence, duration 
and amount, are now painful. 

In similar cases there may be the history of abortion, 
followed by more or less severe inflammation, or the 
patient may have borne a child at full time, which may 
be followed by some form of puerperal illness and sub- 



120 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

sequent sterility. This same author cites another case : 
A woman married two years and a half had one child. 
The patient had copious leucorrhcea during her preg- 
nacy. Two weeks after her confinement, some severe 
inflammatory illness affecting the abdomen came on. 
She was in bed several weeks ; she suffered from a pain 
in the left lung more or less ever after. The child had 
inflammation of the eyes, with a discharge, for which 
it was successfully treated by the doctor in attendance 
on the mother. In an interview with the husband, it 
transpired that he had been affected with blennorrhcea 
(a discharge caused by gonorrhoea) for over a year 
before his marriage took place. The inflammatory 
illness of his wife was gonorrhceal fever. From such 
recorded cases women may at least learn that the pre- 
vailing causes of inflammation, congestion and tumors 
of the ovaries are due to venereal diseases either ac- 
quired or inherited. In fact any wife whose husband 
has had gonorrhoea at any time in his life, will sooner or 
later suffer with inflammation of the pelvic organs, or 
tumors of one or both ovaries, as a result of gonorrhoea. 
The increased flow is such a constant feature in gon- 
orrhoea that it becomes one of the features in the diag- 
nosis. But by far the most important changes in the 
sexual organs which result from gonorrhceal infection, 
are those affecting the fallopian tubes and ovaries. 
With regard to the tubes it would seem that the effects 
vary 7 greatly, according to the virulence of the specific 
organism. If the infected surface lacks the vitality 
sufficient to resist the virus, the disease may spread 
rapidly along the tubes ; the abdominal end becomes 
sealed by the resulting peritonitis. 



GONORRHOEA 121 

The health and lives of those affected are endangered 
by this condition. Often women who suffer from ven- 
ereal diseases do not even know that such diseases are 
in existence, although the majority of men suffer from 
venereal disease in some form or other. 1 

Gonorrhceal infection in women gives rise to a group 
of diseases which, by reason of their social and moral 
consequence, surpass in importance every other class of 
affections that claim attention of the gynecologist. So 
long as male physicians look upon gonorrhoea in women 
as mere bagatelle, what can be expected of the self-in- 
dulgent male clients ? So long as operators know that 
they can produce such " precious results " as enormous 
fees for the castration of women, they give very in- 
efficient treatment, and think it quite unnecessary to 
diagnosticate their cases thoroughly. 

*Dr. Noeggerath's work on "Latent Gonorrhoea in the Female Sex" marks the 
beginning of an new era in clinical knowledge of gonorrhceal disease. He says: 
*' I do not know what the state of matters is in other cities ; I did not know how we 
stood in New York until I questioned the husband of every woman who came under 
treatment ; and I believe we may apply here the dictim of Dr. Ricord that in every 
1,000 men, 800 have had gonorrhoea. " 



CHAPTER XIII 

SOCIAL DEGENERACY— CHANCROID 

Contents. — Chancroid, or the Venereal Sore. — The Chancroid has been termed 
the most Virulent of all Venereal Diseases. — The Chancroid has no Period of 
Incubation. — The Action of the Virus begins immediately. — Time Required for 
the Development of Chancroid varies from Four to Eight weeks. — Chancroid 
Bubo. — Effected Glands may or may not Suppurate. 

The venereal sore or ulcer, properly called chancroid, 1 
is perhaps better known as the soft chancre. It begins 
as a vesico-postule or open ulcer, at first round or oval, 
afterwards becoming angular or irregular in outline, with 
abrupt underminded or jagged edges. The secretions 
are usually abundant and always virulent. Contagion 
is its most distinctive characteristic, for whenever its 
purulent secretion is brought in contact with an abraded 
surface it develops at the point of its implantation an 
ulcer, which in turn furnishes pus capable of repro- 
ducing itself, and so on indefinitely. It is equally active 
both in the person infected and in those who have not 
been affected previously. 

The chancroid is a local venereal ulcer, essentially 
inflammatory in its nature and destructive in its action. 
Another of its special characteristics is that it develops 
without incubation. The virus enters the lymphatic 
vessels and proceeds to the nearest gland, causing 
destructive inflammation. These inflamed glands are 
termed suppurating buboes. The contagious element 

1 Facts taken from various works on Venereal Diseases. 
122 



CHANCROID I23 

of the chancroid resides in its purulent secretions, 
which are capable of reproducing the chancroid indefi- 
nitely. This contagion may be transferred to the lower 
animals, although the soil is less favorable to the pro- 
duction of typical ulcers than in the human species. 

In the majority of cases the contagion of the chan- 
croid is affected by contact with the sexual organs, 
yet it can be transferred by surgical instruments, hands, 
towels, clothing, etc., soiled by its secretions. If the 
pus is mixed with other malignant secretions, such as 
syphilitic virus, it results in what is termed the " mixed 
chancre." Yet there is at first no union of the two 
poisons. Each impresses the tissues in a manner pecu- 
liar to itself. The action of this pus is primarily local. 
Its influence is limited to the lymphatic circle which 
surrounds its point of origin. The virus enters the 
lymphatic vessels which proceed from the ulcer ; but its 
further progress is arrested by the nearest gland. It 
does not at first infect the general system. The com- 
mon course of the virus can be directly traced to the 
chancroidal ulcer ; the virulent lymphatic and the viru- 
lent bubo develop in connection with it. 

The chancroid originates from the pus of gonorrhoeal 
inflammation, induced by the lowest conditions of un- 
cleanliness, immorality and impaired nutrition. This 
idea is strengthened by clinical facts that the chancroid 
is much more common among the low depraved classes, 
because of the defective sanitary conditions which pre- 
vail. In the higher social scales where social and sani- 
tary conditions are progressive, chancroid decreases in 
frequency. 



124 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

The chancroid has been termed the most virulent of 
all venereal diseases, because it is most commonly prop- 
agated by the diseased during- sexual intercourse, and 
has for its almost exclusive seat the genital region. Por- 
tions of the genital integument or mucous surface are 
the most commonly affected, because they are most fre- 
quently brought into contact under conditions in which 
inoculation becomes possible. The chancroid may be 
single or multiple; a number of points may be inocu- 
lated at the same time. Multiple chancroid are the rule 
in women, inasmuch as the anatomy of the parts favors 
inoculation of the surfaces. It has no period of incuba- 
tion ; the action of the virus begins immediately upon 
its implantation beneath the epidermis, although the 
pathological phenomena may not be at once manifested. 
The rapidity of its development depends upon the con- 
dition of its implantation. 

When the contagion occurs during sexual intercourse 
or from artificial inoculation it exhibits the same char- 
acteristics. If deposited upon an abraded surface or 
introduced beneath the epidermis, there is developed 
ordinarily, within twenty to forty-eight hours, a round 
reddish point of inoculation, a papule or pimple, which 
soon becomes converted into a postule. The postule 
soon breaks, and underneath is found a cup-shaped 
depression filled with pus, which readily extends its 
circumference and depth. A typical chancroid is a 
crater-like ulcer, circular or oval in outline, its edges 
perpendicular, its floors uneven, as if pitted or worm- 
eaten, its borders somewhat thickened, and surrounded 
by inflammatory circles. The entire surface of the 









V -'ft: 

§3mmm 




.-^' 



Chancroidal sores and bubo. 



Plate XXX I II. 



CHANCROID I25 

ulcer secretes an abundant, thick, greenish-yellow pus, 
which soon becomes bloody or chocolate colored. Its 
floor is occupied by a sloughing mass of disintegrated 
tissue. The sore rests upon a swollen base, soft to the 
touch, and usually without hardness or resistance where 
there is a wound ; if two ulcers unite, the chancroid pre- 
sents an irregular outlined ulceration. 

The time required for the full development of the 
chancroid varies from four to eight weeks, which may 
be increased or diminished by complications arising 
from the patient's health, irritating treatment, etc. Its 
course may be divided into three states : the progressive, 
the stationary and the reparative. The first stage is a 
rapid extension of the ulcerated process ; the second 
stage, the cessation of the destructive process, and also 
its enlargement; the third stage, the drying up of the 
secretions ; when the floor of the ulcer becomes covered 
with granulations, and healing gradually takes place. If 
the chancroid develops on the external surface of the 
labia majora it burrows deep, and produces consider- 
able destruction of the tissue before it opens. When 
it opens, it presents a deep-seated excavated ulcer. If 
the chancroid develops on the skin or integument, in- 
stead of an open ulcer, it remains scaled over, the dried 
secretions forming a thick blackish crust on the surface 
layer of the skin or mucous membrane. The edges 
are sharply defined, smooth and raw looking, and only 
slightly depressed. It sometimes presents the appear- 
ance of a superficial excoriation, or burn. 

Some chancroids are characterized by the formation 
of a brownish gray or blackish slough, which at first is 



126 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

firmly adherent to the tissue beneath ; this form of chan- 
croid is attended by severe pain and marked constitu- 
tional disturbances. 

After the slough separates it may leave the part in a 
healthy condition or the process may be repeated. The 
sloughing chancroid respects no tissue and often causes 
severe hemorrhage from destruction of the blood vessels ; 
the glans penis, the labia majora and the perineal struc- 
ture may be entirely swept away. In some cases it 
causes hemorrhage and death from exhaustion. 

There is another form of chancroid much more slug- 
gish in its course and more superficial in its ravages ; it 
rarely causes much local pain or constitutional reaction. 
In this form the ulcerative process advances at one side, 
undermining the skin and dissecting the tissue, while on 
the other side a healing process is going on. These 
processes may be interrupted and then begin anew, and 
may thus continue for months or for years, creeping 
over large areas of surface. Summed up in detail the 
following are the chief characteristics of the chancroid: 
it is an acute venereal disease which may occur an indefi- 
nite number of times in the same person. It is derived 
from the pus of the chancroid, — a virulent bubo, or an 
infected lymphatic gland. It has no period of incuba- 
tion. The inflammatory reaction is usually manifested 
within twenty-four or forty-eight hours ; it has almost 
for its exclusive seat the genital regions and neighboring 
parts. It is rarely solitary ; new ulcers develop succes- 
sively from auto-inoculation. 

Active ulceration is an essential condition of the 
chancroid. It evolves the entire thickness of the skin 



CHANCROID 127 

and mucous membrane. The secretions are abundant 
and purulent. The pus is readily inoculable upon the 
bearer and other individuals; and also in the lower ani- 
mals. The chancroid has a soft, pulpy base, which is 
usually sensitive; the pain is often sharp and severe. 
The bubo of the chancroid is not constant; but one 
gland is usually affected; it becomes inflamed and pain- 
ful, commonly suppurates, and furnishes a chancroid 
pus, also inoculable. The various remedies for treat- 
ment cannot always be relied upon. The only sure 
means of prevention is the avoidance of exposure to the 
source of contagion. 

Chancroid has been compared to an animal parasite, 
which should be immediately destroyed and its con- 
tagious elements annihilated. The favorite dressing is 
iodoform. Wives affected with chancroid suffer more 
acutely than their husbands because of their ignorance 
of the nature of the disease, and the difference in the 
anatomy of the body. The simple inflammatory bubo 
is due to sympathetic irritation of the glands situated 
in either groin, while the virulent bubo is caused by 
absorption of the chancroidal virus. The simple bubo 
may terminate without the formation of pus, while the 
virulent bubo always ends in suppuration. The dis- 
tinction between the simple and virulent bubo can be 
made only after they are opened. 

The simple bubo heals as an ordinary abscess. The 
pus of the virulent bubo possesses all the proportions of 
the chancroidal virus, and the bubo is converted into an 
ulcer, which exhibits the same character as the chan- 
croid. The auto-inoculability of the chancroidal pus, 



128 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

which was formerly regarded as an absolute and infal- 
lible test, has been shorne of its diagnostic significance, 
as many other purulent secretions possess this property. 
The chancroid primarily is a local disease, but later it 
affects the entire system. 



CHAPTER XIV 

SOCIAL DEGENERACY — SYPHILIS 

Contents. — A Constitutional Contagion and Hereditary Poisonous Disease com- 
municated by One who is Affected to One who is not. — Transmitted by Parents 
to Children from one Generation to Another for Ages. — When the Syphilis 
Virus enters the System through the Skin or Mucous Membrane it develops at 
the Point of Entrance. — The Chancre local Manifestation of a Constitutional 
Disease. — Occurs but once in the same Individual. — It originates from the 
Secretions of a Chancre, the Blood or Serum of a Syphilitic Person. — The 
Chancre is not inoculable upon the Bearer or upon other Syphilitic Individ- 
uals. — Incubation of Chancre from Ten to Forty Days. — Occurs on any Part 
of the Body. — Always arises at the Point of an Inoculation. — Permeates the 
whole System. — Appearance of Chancre like a hard Body set in the Skin. — 
May persist for Weeks or Months. — Not usually sensitive. — The Buboes of the 
Chancre are developed in the Glands. — Mixed Chancre. — The Chancre the 
Primary Lesion of Syphilis. — The Secondary Lesion of Syphilis usually de- 
velops Six Weeks after the Chancre. — The Secondary Stage usually lasts from 
Eighteen Months to Two Years. — Then follows the Third or Tertiary Stage, 
characterized by its Lesions of Deep Structure. — Syphilis once contracted lasts 
during the Remainder of the Victim's Life. 

Syphilis, ' popularly known as Pox, is a constitutional, 
contagious and hereditary poisonous disease. It is as 
a rule propagated by impure sexual intercourse, com- 
municated by one who is affected to one who is not. It 
has been transmitted by parents to children from one 
generation to another, through all ages ; when the virus 
is introduced into a healthy organism it permeates 
the entire system, manifesting its action upon various 
tissues by processes peculiar to itself. It causes the 
most profound lesions, which are indefinite in duration. 
" The source of the Syphilitic virus from which con- 

1 From various authenticated works on Venereal Diseases. 

129 



130 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

tagion is commonly acquired, are the secretions of the 
chancre and of certain secondary lesions, more partic- 
ularly mucous patches." Syphilis is divided into four 
stages: primary, secondary, tertiary and quartenary 
stages. The modes of syphilitic contagion are many. 
Every person should understand the various processes 
of contagion, in order to prevent the contamination by 
this loathsome disease. 

In order that syphilitic contagion may occur, two 
conditions are requisite ; first, the virus must come in 
contact with an abraded surface of the skin or with the 
mucous membrane ; second, with a person who has not 
previously been affected by syphilitic disease. 

The poison is usually conveyed by contact of the 
genital parts during sexual intercourse, or contagion 
may be conveyed by means of drinking-cups, towels, 
spoons, nursing-bottles, children's toys. The breast of 
a healthy nurse may be infected by the mucous patches 
in the mouth of a syphilitic child. Children are often 
infected by the kiss of a syphilitic adult. Those who 
have the care of children should not allow any one to 
kiss them on the mouth ; kissing is a disgusting habit. 
When considering how much infection occurs, it would 
be well for the race if this habit was not so prevalent. 
There are also other modes of contagion by sponges, 
razors and certain industrial occupations, as glass-blow- 
ing, all kinds of unclean surgical instruments, tatooing 
instruments, pipes, cigars, etc. Several well-marked 
cases have arisen where the contagion has been traced 
directly to cigar and cigarette makers. 

A man who has intercourse with a syphilitic woman 



SYPHILIS I3I 

carries the poison of her secretions to his wife or to any 
other woman with whom he afterwards cohabits. A 
woman who has promiscuous sexual intercourse is the 
means of conveying syphilitic contagion to every man 
with whom she cohabits. Another mode of conveying 
syphilis is by vaccination. The virus may be directly 
transformed from the arm of a syphilitic to a healthy 
person, and develop a chancre at the point of inocula- 
tion. Inoculation may occur during the operation of 
circumcision. 

Syphilis is inherited by children from parents. Either 
parent may transmit this disease to the child. When 
the father is syphilitic and the mother is not, the child 
becomes syphilitic before it is born. Although the 
mother does contract the disease before the birth of her 
first child of a syphilitic father, the severe effect of her 
contagion is not so manifest until after the child is born. 
The distinguishing characteristic of the chancre is that 
it constitutes the local manifestation of the primary 
stage of syphilis, which is a constitutional disease. The 
chancre occurs but once in the same individual. It 
originates from the secretions of a chancre or a syphilitic 
lesion, from syphilitic blood or serum, and also from cer- 
tain other pathological secretions occurring in syphilitic 
subjects. The discharge of the chancre is not inocu- 
lable upon the bearer or upon other syphilitic individ- 
uals. It has well-marked periods of incubation ; on the 
average twenty-six days, rarely less than ten or more 
than forty. It occurs on any part of the body, gener- 
ally upon the genital parts. It makes its first appear- 
ance as a pimple, in the centre of which there soon 



I32 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

develops a reddish-brown color. The chancre may or 
may not ulcerate. It always arises at the point of 
inoculation ; the poison from there permeates the whole 
system, attacking any or every organ and tissue of the 
body, and producing most varied manifestations. 

The duration of the primary stage of syphilis is usually 
six or seven weeks. This period is also designated as 
the period of incubation or hatching. After this the 
disease acquires constitutional properties, although it is 
not known at what precise time generalization of the 
virus takes place. The secretion of the chancre is 
scanty, serous, and rarely purulent, except as a result 
of irritation. 

In external appearance the chancre is like a hard 
body set into the skin. It may persist for weeks or 
months. It is usually round or oval, and is smooth, red 
or livid, although sometimes it may be dry or scaly, and 
is often covered with a false membrane. If ulceration 
occurs it is rarely active. It is usually superficial and 
flat, but sometimes funnel-shaped. The chancre usually 
is not sensitive. When situated on the female genitals 
it may pass unperceived by the patient. The bubo of 
the chancre is developed in the glands and there may 
be several. They are hard, indolent, and movable, and 
rarely suppurate. As a local process the chancre rarely 
gives rise to pain or other symptoms and ordinarily heals 
without a scar. 

The mixed chancre results from the inoculation at 
the same spot of the syphilitic virus and the chan- 
croidal poison, which exhibit the characteristics of both 
chancre and chancroid. The lesion usually presents 



SYPHILIS I33 

first the character of a simple venereal ulcer; later 
the base of the sore becomes hardened, the lymphatic 
glands are enlarged, and general syphilis follows. Some 
authorities claim that in mixed chancre there is no 
union of the two viruses ; that each impresses the tissue 
in a manner peculiar to itself. This is most probably 
the true view of the case. 

When the chancroid virus and the chancre virus are 
inoculated at the same time, the result takes first the 
character of a chancroid, but it does not appear as a 
chancre until after three or four weeks, and this period 
must be added to the six or seven weeks which inter- 
vened between the period of the chancre and the out- 
break of the constitutional syphilis. Multiplicity is a 
characteristic feature of the chancroid, and serves as an 
important sign in distinguishing the chancroid from 
the chancre, as the chancre usually occurs singly. The 
essential features of the true chancre are those of cir- 
cumscribed growth, becoming indurated or hardened. 
Its hardness constitutes the characteristic mark of the 
initial lesion of syphilis. 

Distinct evidence of the process of hardening begins 
within a week after the appearance of the chancre. In 
degree, it varies greatly from a parchment-like texture 
to one of a woody hardness, often resembling a nodular 
body. The hardness does not disappear in less than 
four or five weeks, its softening commonly occurs at 
the outbreak of general symptoms of the constitutional 
disease. 

The chancre usually heals within five or six weeks, 
and leaves no trace of its local existence, except a 



134 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

brownish spot, that gradually disappears. The patho- 
logical process of the chancre consists essentially in 
the accumulation of new cell elements, or new growth. 
If ulceration occurs it is usually at the expense of the 
new cells rather than tissue proper. Although the 
chancre is the primary lesion of syphilis it confers no 
guarantee as to what effect the syphilitic poison will 
have on the system. 

Sometimes a primary lesion is immediately followed 
by tertiary syphilis, affecting some important central 
organ, as the brain, spinal cord or viscera. This fre- 
quently is the case even when the patient has scarcely 
noticed the primary lesion. On the other hand, a 
severe primary lesion may be followed by mild consti- 
tutional results. The treatment of the primary disease 
may be merely rest, cleanliness, the removal of local 
causes of irritation and a simple protective dressing. 
In the opinion of most syphilologists, remedies for the 
constitutional stage are of but little use during the 
period of incubation. 

Whatever may be the mode of contagion when syphi- 
litic virus is inoculated upon the skin or mucous mem- 
brane, it develops at its point of entrance a lesion of 
specific character designated as the initial lesion or chan- 
cre. It does not cause syphilis, but is merely a local 
manifestation of an already constitutional disease. But 
secondary syphilis in one form or other always follows 
a chancre, and without secondary symptoms, syphilis 
cannot be said to exist. 

The secondary 7 stage of syphilis begins as a rule 
about six weeks after development of the chancre. 



SYPHILIS 135 

The outset is attended with fever, sore throat, sore 
glands in various parts of the body, and skin erup- 
tions. These symptoms vary in severity in different 
individuals. In some cases they are quite marked; in 
others obscure or entirely absent. The most character- 
istic symptoms of the secondary stage consist in erup- 
tions upon the skin or mucous membrane, which are 
generally superficial in character, rarely if ever leaving 
scars. The very common characteristics of secondary 
eruptions is their freedom from itching and irritation. 
They yield with remarkable rapidity to the influence 
of mercury. During this stage the blood, as well as the 
lesions, contain the poisons of syphilis. The secondary 
stage lasts from eighteen months to two years. 

The third or tertiary stage of syphilis is characterized 
by lesions of deeper structure, the muscles, tendons, 
bones and internal organs all being subject to altera- 
tion and destruction. These differ in form, extent and 
severity, yet they all possess specific features which 
stamp them as peculiar to syphilis. They are not con- 
tinuously present, but come out in successive crops, 
periods of active outbreak alternating with periods of 
repose in which no manifestations are observed. The 
lesions of the skin are apt to become copper colored and 
leave pigment scars, which sometimes resemble the scar 
of small-pox. 

Besides skin eruptions, there are apt to be mucous 
patches or ulcers in the mouth, anus and vagina. In 
fact there is more or less inflammation of all the mucous 
membranes, fibrous tissues, blood vessels, bones and 
joints, throughout the body. Its duration is indefinite. 



I36 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

The disease may lie dormant or inactive for years, and 
suddenly reveal itself by lesions of a profoundly destruc- 
tive character. The tertiary eruptions are deep-seated, 
with destructive tendency, producing more or less ex- 
tensive loss of tissue, and leaving permanent scars. 
Eruptions may continue to recur during the lifetime of 
an individual. Of all drugs, iodide of potassium pos- 
sesses the most beneficial effects in the tertiary stage of 
syphilis, while it has little influence over the secondary 
eruption. 

Tertiary syphilis is characterized by great destruction 
of tissue, excessive formation of pus, and the forma- 
tion of nodular tumors in any organ or part of the 
body. Ulcers, particularly of the skin, with conical 
crusts known as rupia, are produced. Any part of the 
body is liable to become affected ; the brain, the spinal 
cord, the heart, lungs, and abdominal organs, and the 
various bones of the body. The ultimate stage of 
syphilis is characterized by profound exhaustion, fatty 
degeneration of the organs, the formation of tumors, 
and other serious symptoms, or a generally depraved 
habit of body which is termed a quartenary or fourth 
period, is sometimes observable. When it occurs, it is 
a stage of confirmed syphilitic marasmus, a condition of 
wasting, emaciation, general atrophy or hardening that 
ends in a general withering or consumption of the body. 

While the course of syphilis in the majority of cases 
exhibits a marked uniformity, yet the regularity of 
development often fails. For instance, the limit which 
separates the secondary from the tertiary stage is not 
definitely fixed, as certain secondary lesions, such as 



SYPHILIS 137 

mucous patches, may continue to develop for months 
and years after the completion of the secondary stage, 
while the deep-seated lesions of the tertiary type may 
occur within a few months of the general outbreak of 
syphilis. Some physicians claim that no one ought to 
marry who has had the misfortune to contract the 
syphilis. 

A male physician writes concerning two of his syphi- 
litic brothers : " I could even cite two of our most 
esteemed confreres who have joined practice to precept, 
by remaining unmarried, from the sole consideration 
that as students they acquired syphilis. One of them, a 
most distinguished physician, whose heart is on a level 
with his talent, has never allowed himself to be dis- 
suaded from what he termed his incapacity for marriage. 
'You have spoken to no purpose," he has repeated to 
me a hundred times, " when one has the pox he should 
keep it to himself, without running the risk of giving it 
to others." Although syphilitic persons as a rule have 
no compunction of conscience concerning marriage, yet 
if they sometimes have, they seldom have any regard for 
their victims outside of the marriage state. 

In order to determine on what condition, medically 
and morally, a syphilitic may be permitted to marry, or 
in what respect that man or woman may become dan- 
gerous in marriage, one writer says : " In my opinion, as 
I understand the question, a man with syphilitic antece- 
dents who contracts marriage may become dangerous in 
the following ways: he becomes dangerous to his wife, 
to their children, to the common interests of the family." 
There is many a case in which a young woman in a per- 



I38 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

feet state of health marries a man who has acquired 
syphilis in his bachelor life. Several months later she 
becomes syphilitic, and later still a child is born, com- 
pletely covered with sores. 1 In other cases where the 
father has contracted syphilis and is supposed to be 
cured, children are born with sore eyes or sores on vari- 
ous parts of the body ; later these sores heal and then 
sores of another character make their appearance. 
Often the death of a syphilitic child occurs before it is 
born; and when birth occurs its body is in a state of 
decomposition. If the mother has been healthy previous 
to this time she will never be so again. In other cases 
where the syphilitic virus is not so active, children 
inherit sufficient poison to cause them to become defec- 
tive mentally and morally. 

1 See Plate, a primary sore; b secondary sore. 




Inherited Syphilis. 



Plate XXXIV. 



CHAPTER XV 

SOCIAL DEGENERACY — STRINGENT LAWS 

Contents. — Stringent Laws should be made to severely punish those who infect 
others with Venereal Diseases. — Men and Women affected with Venereal Dis- 
eases should be allowed to marry only among Themselves. — They should be 
.prohibited from propagating their kind. — Women ignorant of Venereal Dis- 
eases marry Men affected with such Diseases. — Sensual Men marry merely for 
Convenience. — A Person affected with Venereal Disease should not have Chil- 
dren. — Children born of Syphilitic Parents are usually small and puny, with a 
peculiarly Aged Aspect. — Syphilis is transmitted by Inheritance. — The Effects 
of Hereditary Syphilis upon the Child's Life is Murderous. — One-third of all 
Syphilitic Pregnancies terminate in Death of the Child before its Birth. — Of 
such Children born alive, one-third die within the First Six Months. — With the 
Advent of Secondary Syphilis the Disease is said to be Constitutional. — The 
Period of Secondary Incubation comprises the Interval between the Chancre and 
Eruption. — Children are every Day inoculated by being kissed by Venereally 
affected Fathers and Brothers. — Women should know the Cause and Effect of 
Venereal Diseases. 

A Malignant disease requires heroic treatment and 
intelligence of its cause to destroy its origin ; therefore 
those who have venereal diseases should not have chil- 
dren. There should be stringent laws to severely 
punish any one who infects another with a venereal 
disease. ] Men and women who are so affected should 
be allowed only to marry among themselves. They 
should be prohibited from propagating their kind, in 
order to stamp out of existence venereal disease, and 
to prevent the terrible suffering which children of such 
parents invaribly endure. 

So long as women are kept in ignorance of these 

1 " Syphilis and Marriage," by Prof. Alfred Founier. 

139 



140 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

horrible diseases they continue marrying men affected 
with them. Not realizing their perilous condition, such 
wives are anxious to have children, in the hope per- 
haps, that the companionship of innocent children will 
in some measure compensate them for what they have 
lost in being associated with husbands who frequent 
houses of prostitution, use tobacco and alcohol, and 
are guilty of vices of the lowest order. The wives of 
such men always realize to some extent their husband's 
immoral condition, and merely tolerate them in order 
to be financially supported, and to avoid what they con- 
sider more of a disgrace than immorality — a divorce. 

Sensual men marry merely for convenience, either to 
decrease expenses or to insure social standing, since 
marriage is considered more respectable by the world 
in general. They consider women therefore, only as 
necessary evils. Men who have led immoral lives 
before marriage all make about the same record as 
husbands and fathers, as the sensualist is invariably 
syphilitic. A male physician describes one of them 
thus : " A man after the first years of his foolish youth 
decides to marry, in order to insure his position and 
happiness by possessing a home and children ; so he 
consults the physician who has doctored him through 
more than one attack of gonorrhoea. His doctor says: 
'Certainly marry, you are completely cured.' He 
marries, he infects his wife. This infected couple en- 
gender children that either die almost as soon as they 
are conceived or are born with their father's disease, 
from which they will suffer the rest of their lives." 
If when a syphilitic child is born it is given to a wet 



STRINGENT LAWS I4I 

nurse, she will also become affected. The nurse infects 
her own child and perhaps others. A friend of the 
nurse may nurse one of the infants and contract syph- 
ilis, and she in turn affects her own infant. 

The same physician says futhermore: "I have wit- 
nessed many scenes of this kind, and I declare I know 
no position more heart-rending, more lamentable, more 
atrocious than that of a man who has introduced the 
pox into his little household ; first, in regard to his dis- 
consolate wife, whose tears are not even accompanied 
with recrimination or complaint, for love and affection 
have readily forgiven (because of the ignorance of those 
who do not realize or understand their horrible situa- 
tion;) and next, in regard to the infant which miser- 
ably vegetates, and instead of being the beautiful child 
dreamed of by the relatives and mother, it is to every 
one, and even to the nearest kin, an object of disgust 
and horror. I have seen a number of syphilitic sub- 
jects marry in opposition to all medical prohibition." 

Another case is given as an example : a young man 
contracts syphilis and comes to seek treatment. Some 
months later, still affected with secondary conditions, 
he announces that he has become engaged to be mar- 
ried, and that the marriage is to take place soon. The 
physician energetically insists upon his renouncing 
such a project, and depicts to him the dangers to which 
he is about to expose himself and his future family ; but 
no arguments can convince him of the immorality, of 
the culpability of such an act. He marries, and the 
sequel comes in time. Some months later he goes to his 
physician in a veritable state of affright and distress. 



142 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

He has infected his wife, and has come to ask attention 
for her. A casual inspection only is necessary to see 
that this young wife is in an active condition of syphilis. 
A hygienic treatment is prescribed, and the husband is 
recommended at any rate to avoid the possibility of 
pregnancy. It is explained to him superabundantly 
that pregnancy would be a second diaster, for accord- 
ing to every probability it could only end either in an 
abortion or in the birth of a syphilitic infant. 

Nothwithstanding, two months later, the young wife 
becomes pregnant. She is at once placed under very 7 
energetic treatment, and an abortion is prevented. 
When it is sure that an accouchement will occur at full 
term, the mother is ordered strictly to nurse her child. 
At the same time the husband is directed to arrange 
matters so as to preclude all possibility of a third mis- 
fortune, and is strictly forbidden to confide the child to 
a nurse ; it is impressed on him that should this be done 
it is more than probable that the nurse will receive the 
pox from the child. 

Some months pass away without the physician again 
seeing this family ; then one day the fathers reappears, 
bringing the child covered with syphilides, and with it 
the nurse to whom the child had been intrusted. As 
had been foreseen, the nurse was infected, and bore 
upon one of her breasts an indurated chancre of the 
most typical character. This man's transgressions and 
vice, the injustice to his wife, the birth of a syphilitic 
child, and the contamination of a nurse, — the distress- 
ing array of sins did not end even here. The effects of 
hereditary syphilis upon the child's life is murderous. 



STRINGENT LAWS I43 

It condemns the offspring to almost certain death from 
syphilitic disease of some form. 

A distinguishing characteristic of hereditary syphilis is 
that it does not make its first appearance by a chancre. 
The first expression of syphilis existing in the child may 
manifest itself in the eyes, ears and bones, or in a dis- 
eased condition of one or more of the vital organs. The 
child is small and puny, with a peculiarly aged aspect; 
the nails remain undeveloped ; the skin, especially about 
the natural orifices, and upon the hands and feet, re- 
mains loose and flabby, and the teeth are misshapen and 
jagged. Sometimes in a few years death kindly comes 
to the child's rescue. What a penalty to pay for the 
supposed pleasures of an illicit passion : these innocent 
lives deliberately wrecked ! If law does not consign the 
murderer to the gallows, it should be imprisonment for 
life. 

One of the earliest and most characteristic symp- 
toms of syphilis is seen in the structural changes of the 
mucous membrane of the nose ; it is often attended with 
a purulent discharge, causing excoriations and fissures. 
The obstruction of the nostrils interferes with breathing 
so completely as to render it difficult or impossible for 
the child to nurse. Later, the entire nasal mucous 
membrane often becomes the seat of the lesions ; the 
ulcerative process may involve the cartilages and bones 
of the nose, resulting in destruction of the bony frame- 
work, thereby flattening and depressing the bridge of 
the nose, or may attack any bone of the body. The 
lesions of bones constitute one of the most constant and 
characteristic symptoms of hereditary syphilis. The 



144 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

long bones of the limbs and the bones of the head are 
the most frequent seat, although any or all the bones 
may be involved. A frequent result of this disease also 
is a curving of the bone, which was formerly thought to 
be peculiar to rickets. 

The susceptibility- of syphilis to transmission by 
inheritance is recognized as one of the fundamental 
characters of the disease, although there are various 
modes of transmission, as for examples : a syphilitic 
man becomes the father of a syphilitic child, while the 
mother remains exempt from all visible signs of the dis- 
ease perhaps for many years. A syphilitic woman may 
bring forth a syphilitic child, the father seeming per- 
fectly healthy. Hereditary transmission, however, is 
more apparent when both parents are decidedly syph- 
ilitic. Transmission is also affected when no active 
symptoms are present. Both parents may seem healthy 
at the time of conception, yet the mother contracts 
syphilis from her husband during her pregnancy and 
infects her child before it is born. 

The influence of syphilis upon the products of con- 
ception is manifested in the various modes and in differ- 
ent degrees of intensity. The intra-uterine death of the 
foetus is its most habitual expression ; this may occur at 
any period of its development, and abortion result, or 
the child may be carried to full term but be still-born. 
In some cases it may be born alive, covered with syphi- 
litic sores or apparently healthy, but soon afterwards 
giving evidence of syphilis. 

Fully one-third of all syphilitic pregnancies terminate 
in death of the child in the uterus. Of children born 



STRINGENT LAWS 1 45 

alive, more than one-third die within the first six months. 
Statistics have shown that out of every four syphilitic 
pregnancies only one child finally survives, although 
when a syphilitic child is born alive it may be apparently 
healthy and present no positive evidence of syphilitic 
taint. In these cases there is usually an outbreak of 
syphilitic symptoms within a short period, ranging from 
the first two weeks to the third month, rarely delayed 
beyond the fourth month. In some cases the morbid 
change is limited to mucous patches of the mouth, anus 
and genitals. These may continue to recur for several 
months, and then cease. 

The severity of inherited syphilis is sometimes les- 
sened during the first two or three years of infantile life ; 
the disease may develop a new train of symptoms and 
continue until puberty, — the fourteenth or fifteenth 
year, — may last as late as twenty or thirty years, or 
even during the entire life. In the majority of cases, 
the evidences of syphilis are certain changes in the 
teeth, and these are among the most trustworthy evi- 
dences of hereditary syphilis. In some instances the 
neck of the tooth is destroyed, and the crown drops off ; 
yet there are some syphilitic children who have perfect 
teeth. 

Since the effect of syphilis is to enfeeble, the food 
must be nutritious. Various tonics should be given, 
according to the stage of the disease. Hygienic sur- 
roundings, regular habits of exercise and rest, and every 
measure calculated to promote nutrition and to improve 
the general health of the body and mind should be 
employed. In the adult, tobacco, alcohol and sexual 



I46 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

intercourse should be absolutely avoided ; hygienic meas- 
ures and nutritious food should be strictly adhered to. 
The child should be fed on artificial food and never 
nursed, because of the likelihood of contamination. 

After those of the skin and mucous membrane, syphi- 
litic affections of the bones are next in order in frequency 
and importance. They may develop at an early period, 
although the more marked symptoms occur in the terti- 
an' or third stage, such as inflammation and tumors, and 
in the development of a spongy condition. The bones 
both of fingers and toes are apt to become involved. 

Syphilitic gumma rarely develops before the third or 
fourth year of syphilis; sometimes not until twenty-, 
thirty or fort\- years after the chancre, or it may appear 
in the first year after the chancre has developed. This 
disease involves the muscles and bones. Usually the 
favorite seat is the lower extremities about the ankles. 
The next region is the face, forehead or scalp. In fact 
it may develop in any place excepting the palms of the 
hands and the soles of the feet. The gummata consist 
of nodules or solid tumors, usually oval, varying in size 
from a pea to that of an orange. Sometimes as many as 
one hundred and fifty- develop on the arm of a victim. 
Gummata of the brain are not infrequent, and their 
prognosis is nearly always fatal. 

Ulcerous tubercles may develop any time from the 
third to the twentieth year of the disease. This aspect 
of the malady is located usually in the region of the 
face ; next point of frequency are the legs, neck, back, 
chest, and anterior surface of the arms. When situated 
upon the nose, this form of syphilide often destroys the 
soft tissue or the entire nose. 




Venereal disease; 



Plate XXXV. 




Venereal diseases. 

Plate XXXVI. 



STRINGENT LAWS 1 47 

Rupia consists of ulcero-crustaceous lesions, originat- 
ing from large syphilitic blisters. This form of syphilis 
is characterized by an accumulation of dirty brown 
crust covering a flat, superficial, ulcerated surface. 
They may occur on any portion of the body, quite 
commonly upon the face, neck and upper extremities. 
Rupia belongs to the secondary stage of syphilis, al- 
though it may develop earlier. 

Erythematous syphilides are the earliest and most 
common. They are located usually on the parts cov- 
ered by clothing; as a rule they form from seven to 
eight weeks after the appearance of the inital lesion; 
their development may be retarded or even suppressed 
by specific treatment. There are two varieties of the 
erythematous syphilides; viz., the muscular, which are 
round or oval in form and bright red or pink in color, 
disappearing upon pressure and later developing into 
a yellowish tint that is not effaced by pressure. On 
disappearing, the patches leave a brownish gray mark. 
The seat of the eruption is usually the front and side 
of the chest, abdomen, arms and thighs. The face is 
rarely affected. The eruption lasts usually several 
weeks. It may disappear after two or three weeks of 
specific treatment, or may gradually emerge into the 
papular form. In the papular variety, the spots instead 
of remaining smooth become slightly elevated upon a 
red base and covered with fine scales. These may be 
found upon the scalp, forehead or other places. 

Syphilides develop during the period of the secondary 
incubation. The action of the syphilitic virus upon the 
organism during the primary stage is limited to the pro- 



I-4-S WOMAN AXD DISEASE 

duction of purely local phenomena. Its only visible 
manifestations are the chancre. During this stage the 
virus multiplies in the system, until its accumulated force 
and energy- causes more or less eruption. With the 
advent of secondary symptoms the disease is said to be- 
come constitutional, although it is probable that the 
contamination of the blood takes place long before its 
constitutional appearance. The period of secondary 
incubation comprises the interval between the appear- 
ance of the chancre and the eruption. The duration 
varies within a certain limit ; on the average it is six or 
seven weeks. The eruptions upon the skin and mucous 
membrane are generally preceded or accompanied by a 
change in the blood. Microscopic examination shows a 
diminished number of red corpuscles and an increased 
amount of white corpuscles. 1 The occurrence of fever 
which follows may be attended with headache, pain in 
the back and limbs, and other signs of constitutional dis- 
turbance. 

Syphilitic fever is much more common in persons of 
delicate and highly wrought organizations. It is prob- 
ably due to the impression of the poison upon the 
nervous system. In the early stage of syphilis, pains 
are remarkable for their tendency to shift from one 
part to another. The pain persists during the night 
and ceases towards morning. It is usually accompanied 
with insomnia. In the shoulders, elbows and knee-joints 

: It is by no means certain that the increase in the actual number of white corpus- 
cles is not a benefit. The later occasionally seem to play the part of scavengers to 
the blood. It is only when their number becomes abnormally great that the condi- 
tion may approach leucocythemia. Any considerable dimunition in the it.: 
number of red corpuscles, however, is a serious matter. 



STRINGENT LAWS 1 49 

the pain is superficial rather than deep ; the character- 
istic headache usually develops towards evening in the 
front, the side, or the back of the head. In a large pro- 
portion of cases, the primary symptoms above enumer- 
ated are entirely absent. The general health of the 
patient suffers no disturbance until the first symptom of 
constitutional trouble is manifested in the secondary 
eruptions. 

The general characteristics of syphilides are the erup- 
tions produced by syphilis upon the mucous membrane 
and skin. While syphilis permeates the entire system, 
affecting every organ in the body in various ways, yet 
its principal phenomena are projected upon the external 
surface. Although the lesions of syphilides consist of 
the same eruptive element as are met with in other 
cutaneous diseases, yet they possess certain peculiarities 
which indicate their specific origin and nature. The 
peculiarities relate to their color, character of the scales, 
crust ulcerations, scars, pain, and other symptoms. The 
earlier syphilides may be distributed over the whole sur- 
face of the body, yet each eruption seems to manifest a 
tendency to develop in certain regions. The syphilides, 
which are red eruptions, usually develop upon the chest, 
trunk and under surface of the limbs. Those containing 
pus, form usually upon the face, scalp, back of the neck, 
trunk and limbs. Scaly syphilides form upon the palms 
of the hands and the plantar surface of the feet. The 
scales of syphilitic lesions are usually of a dirty, grayish 
white color. 

Any man or woman who has contracted syphilis may 
contaminate others after every external sore has healed. 



150 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

A kiss from such a person, drinking out of the same 
glass, or wiping on the same towel, produce infection. 
Children are every day inoculated by being kissed by 
fathers or brothers who have venereal diseases. How 
many thousand mothers, wives and daughters who do not 
even know that there are such diseases as gonorrhoea, 
chancroid and syphilis are being sacrificed by these 
diseases. They have not the advantage of the mistress 
and the prostitute, in whom the disease is carefully 
attended to as soon as it manifests itself, although such 
precautions do not prevent them from becoming more 
and more diseased and inoculating even* one who asso- 
ciates with them. 

More than one medical work written by male physi- 
cians states that the less women know concerning 
venereal diseases the better. They well know that if 
women had knowledge of the serious condition arising 
from venereal disease, no virtuous woman would become 
the wife of a man who did not possess virtue ; nor would 
a virtuous wife who discovered that her husband was 
immoral continue to live with him. No one can de- 
scribe the suffering or the degradation originating from 
such diseases. In order to save future generations from 



&' 



being destroyed by its ravages, woman must have an 
intelligent knowledge of the appearance and effects of 
these diseases. 1 Any woman can learn to detect an 
immoral man by his expression, manner and general 
appearance — just as one recognizes an immoral woman. 

1 Excellent plates and illustrations showing minutely the appearance of the dis- 
ease in its various aspects may be procured free of charge by all purchasers of this 
book. 



STRINGENT LAWS I 5 I 

Those who fail to gain this knowledge are the ones who 
will suffer most from contamination. 

The sensual man insists that it is unlady-like for a 
woman to know anything concerning a man's char- 
acter; that if he chooses to keep a mistress, to visit dens 
of infamy, or to deceive an ignorant girl, the better 
class of women should assume to know nothing about 
such things. If after all this contamination, he con- 
siders that marrying a young woman who belongs to 
the best society would give him a better social stand- 
ing, he never considers for one moment w T hat the result 
would be to her. Political and financial standing aid 
him in securing some girl who is more ambitious than 
w r ise in wishing a position in society, and the posses- 
sion of an abundance of means by which she may in- 
dulge her many abnormal desires. Such conditions 
are always disastrous, and as all sensual men are de- 
ceitful and selfish, the wife soon finds that she is the 
loser. So long as she has youth and beauty he will 
bring her out, as he would show off a fine horse — to let 
the world know that he owns her ; yet he is careful also 
to let the world know that he is the head of the family 
and the house, whether it be a hovel or a mansion. He 
realizes that knowledge is a power, and that the igno- 
rance of women and the legal protection of men give 
him fearlessness of detection. 

" The licensing of vice," says the Woman s Tribune, 
"has been thoroughly tried in America as well as in 
Europe, and has proven as clearly a sanitary failure as 
it has been a moral monstrosity. It has been in force 
in Paris for more than a century; yet Paris is scourged 



152 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

to a greater extent than any other city by the very 
class of diseases which this legislation is intended to 
prevent. In addition, the system has led to such de- 
moralization of the police, such blackmail and such 
serious blunders, conflicts and scandals, that the Muni- 
cipal Council of Paris has recommended its summary 
abolition. It would be absurd to continue in this 
country a legislation which makes such a bad showing 
for itself where it has been most thoroughly tried/' 

So long as women are ignorant of the cause and 
effects of venereal diseases, or of the detrimental effects 
of legalized prostitution, whether in the home or in 
houses of infamy, there is little chance to correct or 
prevent disease and degeneracy. The continued exist- 
ance of the social code of barbaric people has kept 
women in a position inferior to that in which cattle- 
breeders today keep their breeding stock. Men's re- 
ligious dogmas, as well as their unjust civil laws, are 
some of the greatest hindrances not only to a woman's 
progress but to the progress of the human family. 



CHAPTER XVI 

SOCIAL DEGENERACY — REMEDIES 

Contents. — Its most Frequent Cause is the Social Evil. — How are Women to be 
protected from their Husband's Vice and Folly? — "Can Women protect 
Themselves or be protected through their Guardians?" — Can we expect Any- 
thing from Legislation? — Laws should be made and enforced for the Protection 

- of the Young. — "Thou shalt not commit Adultery." — As soon as Women 
acquire Firmness and Moral Courage, they will make and enforce Laws and 
conquer these Evils. — Men, Women and Children should learn to detect Evil. 

— Sensuality in every Form. — Parents should learn that if their Sons frequent 
Houses of Prostitution they become diseased Mentally, Morally and Physically. 

— Can any Intelligent Woman think she does not need to recognize Venereal 
Diseases? — Books which should be read by every Man and Woman. — The Bet- 
ter Development of the Race depends upon Pure Marriage Relations and Wise 
Parents. — Sexual Disease of Children is inherited from Sexually Diseased Par- 
ents. — Heredity and Environment have a Great Influence upon Development. 

— Any one of the Five Senses can produce Sexual Desires by Abnormal Associa- 
tion, exciting reflexly these Nerve Centres. — Sexual Desires control and degrade 
the Intellect and prevent the Evolution of the Soul-life. — Children subjected to 
Severe Punishment. — The Sexual Instinct is often excited to Masturbation or 
Self-abuse. — Some Persians and Russians regard Blows as Peculiar Signs of 
Love. — Men beaten by Prostitutes. — Every Physician conversant with Nervous 
Affections and Diseases Incident to Childhood is aware of the Fact that Manifes- 
tation of Sexual Diseases occur in very Young Children. — Overwrought Emo- 
tions under the Guise of Religion. — Every truly Educated, Refined Woman and 
Man is influenced more by the Mental than the Physical Qualities in the Selection 
of a Life Companion. — Respect only Those who deserve Respect. 

In regard to the social evil, a male physician recently 
discussed the subject in a medical work thus : The ques- 
tion is, how are women to be protected from the conse- 
quences of their husband's prenuptial or postnuptial 
vice and folly? 

I fear no concise and adequate answer is forthcoming, 
and we naturally ask how can the sum of human misery 
resulting from this special cause be diminished? Can 



154 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

the women protect themselves? No! the less that 

women know of these matters, and the less they are 
capable of suspecting, the better for society. Can we 
expect anything from legislation ? We probably are as 
far in that direction already as a healthy public senti- 
ment could permit. Such are the degenerate sentiments 
expressed by the majority of men. Intelligent reason- 
ing would suggest at least that laws should be made and 
enforced for the protection of the young and thoughtless 
youths of both sex, who are influenced and often forced 
into an initiation of sensuality by immoral men and 
women. But we need not look for such legislation so 
long as men alone make the laws, as they will continue 
to protect the sensualists in securing their victims. 

Forages men have been taught that the; ---:- privi- 
leged to practice vice, while their mothers, wives and 
daughters must possess virtue ; that they were at liberty 
to secure other women as victims of their sensuality. 
They have made laws to confine women prostitutes to 
certain houses in the most degraded part of the city, 
while men who frequent such places are at liberty to 
have their residence in any respectable community, and 
also privileged to join any society in the home, the 
church or state. These male prostitutes 1 must not be 
ostracized; it is only their victims who must suffer is 
the decree of an unhealthy public sentiment. 

Many male instructors unblushingly declare that the 
God of purity and truth has so made the masculine por- 
tion of the race, that impurity is an actual necessity to 

1 A prostitute is any one who sacrifices mind and body to the infamous habits of 
sensuality. 



REMEDIES I55 

their physical well-being, while they seem to forget that 
Christ said to man: "Thou shalt not commit adultery." 
11 He that looketh on a woman to lust after her has com- 
mitted adultery already in his heart." Not only are 
loathsome diseases which immoral parents contract 
inherited by their children, but immoral tendencies are 
also transmitted. Even though these terrible truths 
have been known for ages, men seldom teach them to 
their own sex. Not only immoral men, but those who 
claim to be moral, know that venereal diseases are con- 
stantly being conveyed from the brothel to the home by 
husbands, fathers and sons who frequent these dens of 
infamy. These unworthy members of homes carry virus 
in innumerable ways ; any part of their bodies or clothing 
is liable to convey poisonous germs; even articles of 
furniture and books which they handle become means 
of contagion. Their kisses invariably transmit poison 
to the purest and best in the homes. Neither tongue 
nor pen has power to describe this terrible scourge; 
men, women and children should learn to detect and 
war against this evil, if they would not be sacrificed 
by it. If the majority of humanity remains ignorant of 
the cause and effect of venereal diseases much longer, 
there will be none who can escape suffering from these 
diseases. 

Any woman who possesses health and virtue and be- 
comes the wife of an immoral man sacrifices her health 
as well as her morals; and both husband and wife 
deliberately deprive themselves of the right to become 
parents, inasmuch as children of such parents must all 
their lives suffer from physical and moral defects. 



156 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

Although a woman may when marrying possess health 
and virtue, she can never bring into existence a child 
physically and morally healthy if its father is contam- 
inated by tobacco, alcohol, or by venereal disease. 

Parents should learn that if their sons frequent houses 
of prostitution they are unfitted mentally, morally and 
physicially to become husbands of women who are not 
themselves prostitutes. It is just as necessary that 
young men should be trained and disciplined to make 
good husbands and fathers as it is necessary to train 
young women to make good good wives and mothers. 

Can any intelligent woman think she does not need 
to recognize venereal diseases when she sees them, 
or have knowledge sufficient to avoid them? When 
women say that "ignorance is bliss," they invariably 
find that such bliss is the price paid for wrecked lives. 
They should learn before marriage that lack of virtue 
in man is absolutely perilous to health and happiness 
in married life. Only women physicians know of the 
terrible suffering of women caused by venereal diseases 
which have been inherited from fathers or acquired 
from husbands who have been "fast young men," and 
later become disgusting "fast old men," although the 
public may not be aware of the fact in every case. 

But few books have been written, and these recently, 
which have given women any idea of the power which 
the sensualists exercise over the morally ignorant, and 
the unhappiness arising from the marriage of virtuous 
women with men who have led impure lives ; nor does 
the average mother know by what various ways boys 
and girls are led into prostitution. By books and lee- 



REMEDIES 157 

tures should these subjects be thoroughly discussed. 
Such books as Helen Goodwin's " Pray you, Sir, Whose 
Daughter?" "Is this your Son, My Lord?" should be 
read by every man and woman ; they are already being 
read by thoughtful people. 

To prevent the degradation of future generations by 
vicious habits and venereal diseases, there must exist 
financial independence and political equality of men 
and women and the same standard of morality for both. 
Men must overcome their animalism, selfishness, and 
egotism; women their weakness, ignorance and sub- 
mission to animality; neither will they allow themselves 
to be contaminated by venereal disease. They will con- 
demn in public and private life the degrading and in- 
jurious use of tobacco, alcoholic drinks, and sensuality 
in every form. 

The better development of the race depends upon 
pure marriage relations, wise parents, the understand- 
ing of the laws of heredity, and the fearful effects of 
evil habits and diseases on health and morals, and that 
virtue is essential to every human being. The greater 
sensuality of the races of tropical climates compared 
with that of the temperate climate is due no doubt to 
the lack of healthy exercise of body and mind, which 
invariably induces earlier sexual development in the 
inhabitants of any climate where indolence predomi- 
nates over industry. 

Both men and women should know that the animal 
passions are transmitted from parents to children ; that 
even in childhood abnormal development of the sexual 
glands (the testicles and the ovaries) are caused by evil 



I58 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

influences and associations, and that not only heredity 
but environment has great influence upon the abnormal 
development of the sexual organs. During the physio- 
logical development of the reproductive glands, if the 
child is brought under evil influences the mind acts 
abnormally upon the reproductive organs, and the result 
is the forming of diseased habits of body and mind. 

Influences and associations which excite the sexual 
instincts, as emotions and impulses which originate in 
the animal brain are conveyed to central ganglias, and 
from there to the highest nerve centres, thus the lower 
emotions arising in the animal brain immediately disturb 
the spiritual brain. The five primary senses of every 
animal, viz., tasting, feeling, seeing, hearing, and smelling 
can produce sexual desires through immoral associations 
acting on the brain centres, which in turn excite reflexly 
the sexual organs, causing excessive secretion of semen, 
or congestion of ovaries, and in time a permanent abnor 
mal condition of body and mind will ensue ; a predomi- 
nating sexual life will then control the higher nerve 
centres. If these disturbing influences are not overcome 
by intelligent and refined will power, the sexual desires 
will control and degrade the intellect and prevent the 
evolution of the soul life. Any animal instinct can act 
as a cruel tyrant, and degrade the entire being. 

The author of a late work 1 enumerates a number of 
artifical means which induce sexual desires, not only 
in adults but in children. From this writer parents 
may also learn of the abnormal conditions induced by 
corporal punishment. When children are subjected to 

1 " Psychopathia Sexualis," by Krafft-Ebing. 



REMEDIES 159 

severe corporal punishment, especially by the mode 
commonly known as "spanking," the sexual instinct is 
often excited to masturbation, or self-abuse. This 
should be remembered by those who have the care 
of children, on account of the danger to which this 
form of punishment gives rise. It would be well if 
parents, teachers and nurses had sufficient refinement 
of character and intelligence to entirely avoid corporal 
punishment. 

- Flagellation almost invariably excites sensuality; the 
various sects of flagellators, so widespread in the thir- 
teenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, were accus- 
tomed to whip themselves, partly as atonement and 
partly to kill the flesh, in accordance with the princi- 
ples of chastity. This practice was promulgated by 
the Church to emancipate the soul from sensuality. 
These sects were at first favored by the Church ; but 
sensuality, however, being excited the more by flagel- 
lation, the fact became apparent in unpleasant occur- 
ances, and the Church was finally compelled to oppose it. 
The following facts from the lives of two heroines of 
flagellation, Maria Magdalina Pazzi and Elizabeth of 
Genton, clearly show the significance of flagellation as 
a sensual excitant. The former, a child of distinguished 
parents, was born in Florence about 1580, and by her 
flagellations, and still more through the results of them, 
she became quite notorious. It was her greatest de- 
light to have her prioress bind her hands behind her 
and have her whipped on the naked loins in the pres- 
ence of the assembled sisters. The whipping continu- 
ing from her early youth quite destroyed her nervous 



:■:•: woman and disease 

s s:em, and perhaps no other heroine of flagellation 
had so many hallucinations. While being whipped 
her thoughts were of "love." She frequently cried: 
"Enough? Fan no longer the flames that consume me; 
this is not the death I long for ; it comes with all too 
much pleasure and delight." T hus it continued, but 
the spirit of impurity was weaving the most sensual, 
lascivious fancies. 

It was the same with Elizabeth of Genton ; as a result 
of whipping she actually passed into a state of baccha- 
nalian madness. She believed herself united with her 
ideal. She would frequently cry out: "O Love? O 
Eternal Love; O Love? Oh, you creatures! cry out 
with me ; Love ! Love ? n 

It is known that male prostitutes sometimes have 
themselves flagellated just before the sexual act, in 
order to stimulate their diseased sexual organs. 1 Al- 
most invariably such a man marries some ignorant 
young girl, who knows nothing of the life he has led, 
or that such habits are practiced by any human being. 
He very soon censures his wife, and informs her that 
she is not a normal woman ; therefore she is not capa- 
ble of gratifying his natural demands. In order to de- 
ceive his wife he sends her to some male doctor, equally 
as vile as himself, who prescribes cantharides, damiana, 
or some other drug that is a powerful stimulant to the 
sexual ::\vV- The wife faithfully takes these nos- 
trums, believing she is entirely to blame for her hus- 
band's unhappiness. In time she becomes as vile as 
he, or is sacrificed to his lust; dying she leaves her 
place to another victim. 



REMEDIES l6l 

There are some nations where women regard blows 
as a peculiar sign of love, and strangely enough, this 
class of women are never more pleased and delighted 
than when they receive hard blows from their hus- 
bands, as related in the following narrative : A German 
named Jordan went to Russia, and pleased with the 
country settled there and took a Russian wife, whom 
he loved dearly and to whom he was always kind. But 
she always wore an expression of dissatisfaction, and 
went sighing and with down-cast eyes. The husband 
asked the reason, as he could not understand what was 
wrong. " Aye," she said, " though you love me you do 
not show me any sign of it." He begged to be told 
what he had carelessly and unconsciously done to hurt 
her feelings and be forgiven. " I want nothing " was 
the answer, " but what is customary in our country, the 
whip, the real sign of love." Jordan observed this cus- 
tom and accustomed himself to it, and then his wife 
began to love him dearly. 

Similar stories are told, with the addition that the hus- 
band immediately after the wedding, among the indis- 
pensable household articles, provides himself with a 
whip. Therefore it is not strange that a widespread 
belief exists to the effect that because some women pre- 
fer abuse, disfranchisement and submission, all women 
desire it, and that such treatment is best for women. 
The same argument would hold good for men as well, as 
there are numerous cases on record and actually occur- 
ring every day in which male prostitutes insist upon 
being mercilessly beaten by their paramours. 

It is also a well-known fact that certain kinds of odors 



1 62 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

excite sensual desires, especially in those who have 
inherited or acquired abnormal conditions of the mind. 
Odors of flowers and heavy perfumes are used by 
sensual men and women, in order to produce sexual 
excitement. In the Orient perfumes are thus esteemed 
for their relation to the sexual organs ; the harems of the 
Sultan are filled with perfumes of flowers. 

The more mentally degraded a human being is, the 
more susceptible will the animal nature become to every 
excess and abnormal condition. Thus one can under- 
stand that passion and " sexual love " originate with the 
animal instincts, and cause the degeneracy of body and 
mind. Abnormalties of the sexual functions have been 
found to be especially frequent in the civilized races. 
This fact is explained in part by the great variety of 
stimulants used to excite sensual desires, thus produc- 
ing abnormal conditions. The generative organs are 
intimately connected with the nervous system, and 
should be under control of the higher nerve centres of 
the brain ; when such is not the case it is easy to under- 
stand that mental and moral degeneracy are caused by 
sexual abominalties. 

Every physician conversant with nervous affections 
incident to childhood is aware of the fact that manifes- 
tations of sexual diseases may occur in very young chil- 
dren, and are often caused by unhealthy conditions of 
the rectum, vagina or urethra. Any disease of these 
organs which causes itching or a burning sensation may 
cause a child to experience a kind of pleasureable sen- 
sation by manipulations thus induced, and finally to 
practice masturbation, or self-abuse. There are also 



REMEDIES 163 

many other causes, such as inheritance and association 
which parents and moral instructors should be capable 
of detecting and even assist in correcting in the most 
degraded children. 

The following case is also recorded of a girl of eight 
years, who was void of all childlike and moral feelings, 
although she was the offspring of respectable parents. 
She had masturbated from her fourth year; at the same 
time she had immoral associations with boys of the age 
of ten and twelve. She later thought of killing her 
parents, that she might become her own mistress and 
give herself up to pleasure with many men. 

There are numerous cases on record of boys and girls 
who masturbated habitually at the age of seven years, 
and even earlier. Youths who once acquire this disgust- 
ing habit often continue it even after mature years, when 
they become the men and women who frequent houses 
of prostitution. 

Women have been known to practice self-abuse during 
pregnancy. A case is recorded of such a woman who 
was the mother of twelve children ; five of her boys died 
early, four of hydrocephalus ; and two boys began to 
masturbate, one at the age of seven and the other at the 
age of five. 

Not only adults but children should be taught to con- 
trol their emotions, whether they are excited under the 
guise of " religion or love." Emotions tend to produce 
abnormal ideas of life, and indicate disease of body or 
mind. 

Krafft-Ebing claims that man has naturally much 
more intense sexual desires than woman ; that his love 



164 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

is necessary sensual, aggressive and violent, and that 
with woman it is quite otherwise. He declares that if 
woman is normally developed mentally and well-bred, 
her sexual desire is small. If this were not so the world 
would become a brothel, and marriage and a family 
impossible; yet this writer does not state that man's 
immoral condition is just as detrimental to the world as 
woman's immoral condition can be possibly. 

Continuing his argument, he says: nevertheless, the 
sexual sphere occupies a much larger place in the con- 
sciousness of woman than in that of man ; the need of 
love in her is greater than in man and is continual, not 
intermittent, but this love is rather more spiritual than 
sensual. In the choice of a life-companion woman is 
influenced much more by the mental than the physical 
qualities of a man. Had he said that truly educated and 
refined men and women were influenced much more by 
the moral than the physical qualities in the selection of 
a life-companion this would have more clearly described 
their normal condition ; but he does say : 

To a women who loves with her whole soul, her love 
is life ; to a man it is the joy of life ; to him misfortune 
in love is a wound ; but it costs woman, if not her life, at 
least her happiness. 

A psychological question worthy of consideration, is 
whether a woman can truly love twice in her life. Cer- 
tainly the mental inclination of woman is monogamous, 
while in man it is polygamous. This statement of Krafft- 
Ebing may also be questioned. Why is not virtue and 
monogamy quite as necessary to man's evolution as to 
woman's evolution in this or any other life ? Is it any 



REMEDIES 165 

wonder that boyhood as well as manhood has become so 
sensual, since so-called scientific men instruct and teach 
that virtue is necessary only for woman, and not for man. 
This male instructor in his work, " Psychopathia Sexu- 
alis," says : The unfaithfulness of a wife in comparison 
with that of a husband is morally much more weighty, 
and should be much more severely punished legally. 
The unfaithful wife dishonors not only herself but also 
her husband and her family. Natural instinct and social 
position favor unfaithfulness on the part of the husband, 
while in the case of an unmarried woman, sexual inter- 
course is something quite different from what it is in 
an unmarried man. Of a single man society demands 
decency, of a woman also chastity. In the cultivated 
social life of today woman occupies a sexual position, 
and concerning herself in the interests of society can 
only be thought of as a wife. 

The ideal of woman, even when she is sunken in the 
mire of vice, is and remains marriage. Woman desires 
not only satisfaction of her sexual feeling, but also pro- 
tection and support for herself and children. A man of 
right feeling, no matter how sensual he may be, demands 
a wife that has been and is chaste. Probably feminine 
modesty is an hereditarily evolved product of the devel- 
opment of civilization. In a remarkable contrast with it 
there is occasional exposition of physical charm, con- 
ventionally sanctioned by the law of fashion, in which 
even the most discreet maiden allows herself to indulge 
in the ball-room. The reasons which lead to this display 
are evident. Fortunately, the modest girl is as little 
conscious of them as of the reason for the occasionally 



1 66 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

recurring mode of making certain portions of the body- 
more prominent. 

In all times and among all races, women show a 
desire to adorn themselves and be charming, yet in 
the animal kingdom nature has distinguished the male 
with the greater beauty. Men designate women as the 
beautiful sex. This gallantry clearly arises from the 
sensual desire of men, yet so long as this personal 
adornment has a purpose only in itself or the true 
psychological reason of the desire to please remains 
unknown to woman nothing can be said against it. 
With respect to the development of psychological love 
it is probable that the nucleus is always to be found in 
an individual fetich, which a person of one sex exer- 
cises over one of the opposite sex. Emotional and 
visual impressions are brought into associative connec- 
tion, and this association is strengthened in proportion 
as the recurring emotions awaken the visual memory 
picture, or another meeting renews sexual excitement, 
which may possibly reach the intensity of organism 
and pollution. In this case the whole physical person- 
ality has the effect of a fetich. Peculiar sympathies all 
spring from it; thus one is attracted to such physical 
conditions as slender, another to plump beauties, an- 
other to blondes or to brunettes, for one a peculiar ex- 
pression of the eyes ; for another a peculiar tone of the 
voice, or the hand, the foot, the ear, or even a peculiar 
order or perfume may be the individual fetich charm, 
and the beginning of a complicated chain of mental 
processes, which as a whole represents love ; i. e., the 
longing to possess, physically and mentally, the beloved 



REMEDIES 167 

object. Love must always have a sensual element; in 
civilized society woman exercises her ingenuity to in- 
crease her attractions, but among the savages it is the 
man who is anxious to increase his physical charms. 
This reversal of a primitive relation is a very interest- 
ing fact, and is probably to be explained by the trans- 
ference of the liberty of choice from woman to man 
which civilization has gradually induced. 

The above discussion of Mr. Krafft-Ebing is a de- 
scription of what should be termed abnormal emotions 
which originated with the lower forms of life, and has 
been transmitted and exaggerated by one specie after 
another, including the human specie. The lowest and 
vilest passion of animals man has termed "love." This 
same word is also used to express the purest regard 
which one intelligent being. can have for another — and 
that is true respect for one who deserves respect. 



CHAPTER XVII 

BELIEFS THAT ARE ABNORMITIES 1 

Contents. — A Knowledge of Abnormalities Necessary. — Faith True and False. 
— Faith Cures. — Three Abnormal Creeds. — The "Worship of Sexual Organs. — 
Mental Sexuality. — The Nude. — Sodomites. — The Medical Sensualist. — Psy- 
chic Degeneracy vs. Psychic Evolution. — Heredity as Strong for Noble Traits as 
for Ignoble Ones. 

Women should be well informed concerning the num- 
erous abnormities of faith which are being imposed upon 
humanity, each of which assumes to be the only way by 
which disease can be cured, health maintained or soul 
saved. In all creeds, faith precedes their cures or their 
salvation whether the object of faith is imaginary or 
real. 2 Paracelsus, who lived in the first half of the sixth- 
teenth century, recognized the power of faith, and said 
of it : " Faith, however, produces miracles, whether it be 
false or true faith ; thus if I believed in St. Peter's statue 
as I would have believed in St. Peter himself, I would 
obtain the same effect that I would have obtained from 
St. Peter." Yet all faiths and all remedies fail under 
certain conditions. Drugs that will cause one person to 
sleep will sometimes cause another to become violently 
delirious, and faith that " saves " one person may cause 
the death of another. The more intelligent people re- 
quire more intelligent theories. 

Various objects of faith exists in which humanity 
believes, and from which they obtain results that seem 

1 Quotations from various faiths. 

8 Quotations from " Hypnotism," by James R. Cocke, M.D. 

16? 



BELIEFS THAT ARE ABNORMITIES 1 69 

wonderful until the natural laws are better understood. 
Christ said : " According to your faith be it unto you." 
It is the same today, whether it be faith in God, in mind- 
cure, in Christian science, in spiritualism, in mesmerism, 
in suggestive hypnotism or "faith in man." Faith is 
believed to be the subjection of the human will and 
judgment to divine intelligence, to the objective mind 
of the individual, or to the objective mind of another 
human being, and sometimes even to the objective 
minds of the lower species, as in cases of human beings 
" charmed " by serpents. The person in question has 
faith in some mysterious power supposed to belong to 
the serpent; therefore the subjective human mind is 
brought into subjection to objective or animal minds of 
both the person and serpent, as it were paralyzing the 
intelligence of the will and judgment of the subjective 
mind, which is or should be the superior mind of every 
human being. 

In all faith cures it is known that faith is controlled by 
the objective will, and is exercised according to the intel- 
ligence of the patient ; and the cure is accomplished by 
the patient's own individual vitality, adjusting the equi- 
librium of vital power in the body. To a greater or less 
extent each living being posesses vital power, or breath 
of life, and by the force of the will this vitality becomes 
active or passive, and can be used for normal or abnor- 
mal purposes. The source of vitality being unlimited, 
accounts for the many wonderful cures which have so 
frequently surprised the people in the different ages of 
the world, yet invariably these wonderful phenomena 
are discovered to be the result of natural laws. The 



170 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

superior intelligence of the intuitive mind recognizes 
natural laws which the objective or animal cannot com- 
prehend. The human mind creates and builds its own 
theories according to its own ideas of life. The higher 
the spiritual or subjective character the more complex 
and superior will be the ideas of the individual mind, by 
which wonderful scientific results are being constantly 
evolved. Those who recognize the divine source of all 
natural law and of all life will accomplish greater results 
than any one who has faith in human power or in " visi- 
ble spirits of the dead" or in inaminate objects. Only 
those abnormal creeds which are most detrimentally 
affecting the race will be considered, in order that 
woman may more thoroughly oppose them, and at last 
annihilate them for the good of humanity. 

Within the last twenty-five years three abnormal 
creeds have been more or less taught in different parts 
of the United States. The oldest of these abnormities 
teaches that the health of the body and mind depends 
upon stimulating and increasing the sexual desires. 
These promulgators of increased sexuality have differ- 
ent modes of procedure. In one institution the origi- 
nator, who claims to be a physician, teaches his patients 
that they should pray for sexual desires, and should not 
seek to suppress them. He also states that the majority 
require many weeks in attaining his belief, although 
some are very apt scholars. He cites a case of one 
young man who consulted him in regard to his health, 
to whom he said : " If you will return thanks to God for 
every sexual sensation, you will regain your health.'' The 
young man gained nine pounds of flesh the first week I 



BELIEFS THAT ARE ABNORMITIES 



171 



Of another case he states that he was called to see a 
lady who had been confined to her bed for some years. 
He told her that her prostration resulted from the rebel- 
lion against the will of God in creating her to be a wife 
and mother. She replied that before she married she 
thought her husband was a good man, possessing pure 
desires ; since their marriage she found she had been 
mistaken. He informed her that it was her thought 
which produced her disease ; and an hour was spent in 
impressing upon her the belief that her desire must be 
subject to her husband, which was all that was done for 
her. Two months afterward she was well and doing her 
own housework. 

Another patient without any usual symptoms of fever 
had great heat of the body every night for years, and 
could sleep but little. She was also informed that she 
did not obey her husband ; she insisted that she did, as 
he forced obedience. She was then assured that if she 
ever understood the true meaning of obedience, accord- 
ing to God's word, she would obey without compulsion. 
As soon as she believed this, all disease passed away 
and she slept well. 

This impostor says : " Married women frequently com- 
plain that their husband's love is low and sensual ; they 
believe purity to consist in having no consciousness of 
sexual life, and they pray that their husbands may be 
brought to this condition. When they see their error 
they admit that their husband's ideas of sexual life have 
been nobler than their own. As soon as they believe 
they need to bestow more abundant honor on that part 
which lacked; and then they improve in health and 



172 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

become happy in the desire of giving their husbands 
happiness." 

He also says: "Many cases of diseases in unmarried 
women are caused by their condemnation of the deeds 
of lustful men ; through their anger they become miser- 
able, as if they were the wives of such husbands." He 
therefore informs unmarried women who are his patients 
that they cannot be cured unless they forgive all wicked 
men. 

This monster records the case of a young woman who 
was troubled with weak eyes, which he attributed to 
non-sexual development and her unconsciousness of 
sexual desires. He says he advised her to pray for that 
desire, and that "when she was conscious of sexual 
feeling she was told to remove the bandage from her 
eyes, and upon doing so she could endure the light with 
but little pain. She was then instructed to return 
thanks for sexual feeling, that it might be redeemed for 
the salvation of the soul and the healing of her body. 
Her thankfulness for sexual life diffused the sexual 
feeling through her system, and that diffusion gave in- 
creased functional power to all the vital organs. Her 
appetite increased, she gained flesh, and in a few weeks 
her eyes became so strong that she could go out of doors 
when the sun was shining on the snow, and suffered no 
pain in consequence. When she left the institution she 
was a fully developed woman." 

For the last quarter of a century this human monster 
has kept in existence an institution where he has taught 
many diseased men and women his disgusting theories. 
He tells his patients that he never thinks evil; "that 



BELIEFS THAT ARE ABNORMITIES 173 

to the pure all things are pure ; " therefore he can resort 
to any process he desires in order to stimulate their 
sexual desires. He requires his followers to worship an 
image of the sexual organs as the women of India who 
are slaves to the Mohammedan creed, are required to do. 

Mental sexuality is another sensual creed. It is 
taught differently from physical sexuality, yet they both 
sooner or later accomplish most degrading results ; it 
is also known as sexual love, sex attraction, or mental 
sexual intercourse, which the promulgators claim is 
superior to the physical, except when each occur simul- 
taneously. These "mental scientists" claim that they 
are infinitely more alive, by reason of having engen- 
dered in themselves such a vast amount of sex power, 
that the slightest touch of each other's hands would be 
productive of greater pleasure than the sex act has ever 
yet yielded; that "to be near each other is life-giving 
and an interchanging which quickens the intelligence 
and heightens the beauty and adds to the happiness and 
unfolding powers of each. 

" Nor is this all ; there is sex exchange through the 
sexual organs at the same time ; although the power 
does not originate in the sexual organs but in the brain. 
It creates as it desires ; if it desires to create off-spring 
it will do so; but whether it creates off -spring or not, 
the sex nature is an indispensable part of man." 

" Every step upwards of the human race has been 
marked by an increased amount of passion or sex 
desire. The sex act of the future will embrace still 
more of the man and more of the woman than it has 
before done ; some people are already ceasing to look 



174 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

upon it as unholy and coarse, and are beginning to 
regard it in its true light as a builder of spirit as well as 
body. Therefore man is composed of three great labo- 
ratories : his stomach, his sexual organs, and his brain ; 
and these three are one." ' These three organs of the 
animal body have been used to degrade the human race 
much lower than it is possible for the lower animals to 
become. For ages the sexual act has been considered 
by a certain class of people as conducive to health, espe- 
cially to man's health ; but time and science will prove 
this teaching false. 

The worship of the nude is the third disgusting 
dogma that has been recently promulgated in some of 
the western cities, though it had its origin in an eastern 
city. The originator assumes to be a minister of the 
gospel ! He teaches that men and women should wor- 
ship in a nude state ; that they should give each other 
baths, as one expression of devotional exercise. Strange 
as it may seem, each of these revolting dogmas has 
many " devout " followers, yet it is not difficult to under- 
stand why there are so many victims, for so soon as the 
animal nature rules the individual it degrades every 
power of the body and mind, evil ideas ever revolve 
from one false position to another ; sensuality employs 
various ways and means to prostitute humanity. Even 
the nations that have been considered most advanced in 
civilization have originated the greatest number of ways 
and means to degrade the races, and their increase in 
sensuality marks their decline. Saloons and houses of 
prostitution are equipped in the most gorgeous or the 

1 These quotations were taken from a work on "Mental Sexuality." 



BELIEFS THAT ARE ABNORMITIES 1 75 

most fastidious style, to suit the desires of those who 
frequent these places. 

Voluptuousness and nudity are among- the most pow- 
erful stimulants of sensuality to excite the mind to 
abnormal action ; therefore seducers of morality are 
attempting to teach the world that nudity is necessary to 
high art ; that " to the pure all things are pure." The 
pure do not desire low means of enjoyment. Modern 
methods are not only employed but even the Oriental 
vices, for which the ancient cities Sodom and Gomorrah 
were destroyed, are now being more or less encouraged ; 
the practice so disgusting that even today it is a nameless 
crime on the statute book — a crime that existed among 
people celebrated for their culture. The Greeks learned 
these revolting habits of the nations of the East; they 
in turn taught them to the Romans. The sturdier 
Teutonic families resisted them, but even now there 
are numerous spasmodic outbreaks in large cities of 
America and Europe. The recent conviction of "the 
Apostle of Aestheticism " in London is a sort of an 
echo from that ancient city — " Sodom." 

A still worse impostor than the Sodomite, because of 
greater license and more numerous victims, is the sen- 
sualist and seducer who has graduated as a physician. 
He is often one of the " shining lights in the medical 
association," a member of the church, and invariably a 
conspicious figure in society. He makes a speciality of 
"female diseases." Women who go to his office he 
treats with compliments in regard to their beauty of 
form, etc. He says to the slender woman ; " How I 
admire slenderness, flesh is gross." If the next patient 



176 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

proves to be one of those corpulent persons whom he 
has just been criticizing, he at once assures her that he 
so much admires a well-developed woman, and could 
never endure a thin, scrawny woman, as the one who 
had just passed out of the office. He makes a special 
effort to please "the young ladies." He informs each 
one in as plain language as he dare that sexual gratifi- 
cation is necessary, for the recovery of her health, and 
he is therefore perfectly willing to do his duty as a 
physician, as he has done in a great many similar cases. 
He terms each one " daughter," in order to insure her 
that he is most solicitious for her health and happiness. 
He sometimes has the audacity to inform a mother that 
her daughter must have sexual gratification, which he 
" as a physician is willing to give," — that is unless the 
daughter prefers to marry soon. He also informs each 
married lady that were he her husband he would be the 
happiest man in the world. 

One of his professional brothers, who assumes to be 
at the head of the medical profession in the city where 
he resides, said recently: "We must put a stop to 
women riding the bicycle." He stated that he had 
questioned in his office a great many young girls, at 
least one hundred, in regard to such exercise, and they 
all admitted to him that they had experienced sexual 
excitement while riding. One member of the medical 
profession asked, "if riding the bicycle effects men the 
same as women." The reply was : " Oh yes ! yet that 
makes no difference with men." 

Comparing the opinions of such libertines with that 
of a professor of physiology ! who is a woman, concern- 

1 Dr. Katherine Berry Richardson, a Professor in the College of Physicians and 
Surgeons, Kansas City. 



BELIEFS THAT ARE ABNORMITIES 1 77 

ing what is requisite for health in woman, the following 
is of interest : " One-half of the ailments in women 
which are charged to inherent weaknesses are directly 
traceable to lack of outdoor exercise. Under the 
healthful stimulus of open-air sports or occupation, 
associated as they must be with a broadening knowl- 
edge of people and events, women and girls grow in 
physical and mental strength. Growth of this kind is 
utterly incompatible with the love-lorn hero worship, 
or sentimental self-effacement which the old-time nov- 
elist loved to describe as outgrowths of the truly 
feminine type of mind. With increasing confidence in 
her own ability the modern girl no longer feels that 
marriage is in a certain sense compulsory, nor a single 
life a bugbear, to be escaped at any cost. She can 
calmly observe the men of her acquaintance and dis- 
criminate between them with none of the glamor which 
used to be eternally before the eyes of her old-time 
sister, whose outdoor exercise was limited to a ladylike 
game of grace hoop. 

With the help of tennis and the bicycle, woman is 
developing a strength of mind and body which is fatal 
to the hopes of a man in no way her equal. To her is 
coming an appreciation of true manliness and a very 
"strong-minded" contempt for its counterfeits. And 
now comes the wail of these counterfeits. They are 
alarmed at the ' unwomanliness ' of the popular sports. 
They are terrified lest danger comes to the precious 
pelvic organs; they fairly turn pale at the thought of 
the ' excitation ' which might follow the use of the bicycle 
saddle, and they are led to a wholesale questioning 



178 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

of young girls as to the alarming effects of the wheel. 
Says Dr. Elizabeth Keller of Boston: if I were the 
mother of one of those young girls I should inter- 
view those men personally, and try to determine 
whether the fatherly solicitude did not have its origin 
in something decidedly reprehensible. This wholesale 
' questioning ' should be stopped at once. The privacy 
of a physician's office is no more the place for such a 
discussion of sexuality than is the confessional of a 
cathedral ; and the man who so far presumes upon his 
privileges of medical attendant should be taught a lesson 
in decency by some power which he could understand. 

" The enormities of the confessional have received 
the strongest condemnation from many who are quick 
to recognize evils in religions. The license which 
permits a priest to question a girlish penitent upon 
the most sacred personal affairs ; which upholds and 
justifies him when he prostitutes his ghostly office to 
serve the interests of his own sensuality, this license 
has never failed to meet the strongest disapproval. 
While a Protestant father looks lovingly at his daughter 
and feels a sense of satisfaction in knowing that no 
fanatical adherence to pope or priest blinds her to the 
evil of words or acts not sanctioned by the moral code, 
and with the welfare of his daughter near his heart, is 
warmed by a virtuous sense of satisfaction. That same 
father will send his daughter to the greatest libertine 
in the city, provided only that a diploma from an 
honored institution and the possession of professional 
skill glosses over a personality in every way unclean. 
What would be the verdict of society if a woman 



BELIEFS THAT ARE ABNORMITIES 179 

physician of openly immoral life announced herself as 
prepared to attend to all the private ailments of young" 
men only? Think you that skill, or diploma, or a 
moneyed marriage, or the most suave and insinuating* 
manners would lead the best of fathers to entrust their 
young sons to the hands of such a woman ? And what 
do you think would be the fate meted out to the woman 
who so outraged the sense of propriety on which we 
pride ourselves ? But the prototype of such a picture 
is- one of the most common, and the victims are the 
daughters whom these world-wise fathers would pro- 
tect from every contaminating presence. I tell you 
that the time is coming when a more enlightened people 
will look back upon this thing as something monstrous, 
and marvel that our present grade of civilization would 
ever have sanctioned this wholesale ' treatment ' of young 
girls by men not fit to enter the homes they disgrace. 

"Do you think we exaggerate? Question your family 
physician. Secure in the rectitude of his own life, or 
blinded by the glare of the professional success of these 
male ' specialists in women's diseases.' it is ten to one 
that he will assure you that the case is absurdly over- 
drawn ; for if there is anything on which a rancorous 
profession will come to an immediate agreement, it is 
in its opposition to the words and influence of women 
physicians. But look up the subject yourself. Observe 
how little weight is given to moral cleanliness in a pro- 
fession where skill in operating counts much above 
curative but non-operative methods. 

" Over against the sensual questioning of the priest 
put the no less sensual questionings of these medical 



I SO WOMAN AND DISEASE 

lights, and if you must subscribe to that false teaching 
which holds that men best understand the ailments of 
women, at least demand that he who treats your 
daughter shall be chosen from the number of those 
whose lives are not a disgrace to the positions they 
hold. Senn says of the late Samuel D. Gross: ' He was 
a man whose eminent professional reputation was 
crowned by the purity of his private character.' High 
praise merited by few! But those few do exist; and 
again I beg that so long as you insist that men shall 
minister to the private ailments of your daughters, you 
see to it that a wide distinction is made between the noble 
physician and the professional sensualist/' 

Intelligent parents will inform their sons and daugh- 
ters in their youth that moral diseases often exist among 
people who are supposed to be respectable ; so that when 
evil is suggested to them in any form they will readily 
recognize the dangerous and revolting results 

Wisdom teaches that the true object of each indi- 
vidual life is to develop beyond the animal into the 
spiritual. The animal nature cannot possibly satisfy 
the spiritual nature, neither do degraded minds desire 
wisdom that gives peace and purity to the soul; yet 
even' living being who enters this physical world pos- 
-r^ses an intuition of right and wrong and sufficient will 
power to secure divine aid to pursue the right. 

To have lived equally pure lives is the only power that 
can insure human equality in this world or in future 
worlds. Even' human soul possesses an inherent will 
power by which the individual life degenerates or 
evolves; it is therefore by the cultivation of the will 



BELIEFS THAT ARE ABNORMITIES l8l 

power that human purity, equality and happiness is 
attained. 

In an article recently published, a male physician who 
resides in America discusses the subject of " Human 
Equality." He says : " While according to our Constitu- 
tion man may be born free and equal in the eyes of the 
law, he is not free and he is not equal in the eyes of 
nature ; he is born a slave to inherited tendencies, and 
he is born in all varying degrees of self capacity. 

" Did we but recognize the unquestionable fact that 
mentality is capable of development not alone by books and 
the help of others but by the exercise and use of the menial 
attributes born with each of us ; did each one of us recog- 
nize that we are not all equal in the eyes of nature, and 
did we each strive patiently to understand and properly 
estimate ourselves, and to fit ourselves into holes designed 
for us by nature, we would have very little anarchism; 
we would have much less self-destruction, and this would 
be altogether a much more pleasant place to live in. 

" In his lecture on ' Liberty of Man, Woman and 
Child,' Col. Robert G. Ingersoll contends that thought 
is material; that 'thought is a brain product, as vege- 
tables are products of the soil, and that each individual 
should harvest his mental crop and act in accordance 
with the dictates thereof.' The idea is in accord with 
the theory of human equality; but it is not in accord 
with the teachings of biology or of physiology, the stu- 
dent of which cannot logically believe in the equality of 
mankind ; nature plainly indicates that she intends that 
a comparatively few shall lead the masses who are de- 
signed as followers. 



1 82 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

" If this be true, not only nature but the God of nature 
deserves neither respect nor recognition. But only those 
who believe in a God who predestined that only the 
4 elect ' would be saved, can believe in such absurd and 
unjust dogmas. If the teachings of 'biology or of 
physiology can be so misconstrued, may the day soon 
come when Americans will insist upon more intelligent 
teachers as well as more complete revisions of biology 
and physiology. 

T: substantiate his views this writer on 'Human 
Equality' quotes from his English brother. Dr. Forbes 
Winslow contends that * under despotic forms of govern- 
ment suicide is much less prevalent than it is in coun- 
tries governed on the principle of Republicanism, which 
is another term for human equality. Where the actions, 
thoughts and lives of human beings are controlled 
rather by others than by themselves, life is in itself 
more pleasant to the individual.'* 

These two physicians who agree upon the despotic 
rule of one human being over many, do not agree in 
their ideas of " Heredity/* The doctor living in America 
says : The doctrine that we have always held and taught 
is that everything can be and nothing need be developed 
in the individual as the result of inherited influences. 
Enumerating the causes of suicide, the English special- 
ist, Dr. Forbes Winslow places heredity in a conspicuous 
place, and lie fails to qualify this causative factor as we 
Jmvc done; this is dangerous. If 3-our father has com- 
mitted suicide, there is no logical reason why you will 
do likewise, unless you wilfully allow the erroneous con- 
ception of heredity to so dominate your reason as to cause 



BELIEFS THAT ARE ABNORMITIES 183 

you to think that you are irresistibly doomed to the com- 
mitment of a similar act. Whatever brain defects may 
have induced the father's act need not necessarily exist 
in the child ; a tendency thereto will doubtless be trans- 
mitted, and if this tendency be fostered and developed 
in the child as it has been in the father the result will be 
the same; but if the conditions necessary for its devel- 
opment are avoided the act need not ensue. Blind, 
unresisting submission to that which is considered inev- 
itable, rather than to the manful, logical, determined, 
intelligent resolution not to so submit is the result; ter- 
rible and fatal is the ruinous result of this erroneous 
conception of heredity. Do not forget that anything 
can be and nothing need be transmitted by heredity." 

This American monarchist seems to advocate the idea 
of the mind being capable in resisting hereditary influ- 
ences that it should not yield to, yet he argues very dif- 
ferently when he is considering the individual right of 
one human being to rule another. 

" Blind, unresisting submission " to any individual or 
condition is fatal to the normal development of body 
or mind. If each human being may become capable 
of resisting inherited tendencies, each human being 
may also become capable of controlling his or her 
own " actions, thoughts and life." 

As the physical world is termed " nature," is it wise as 
human beings to "fit ourselves into holes designed for 
us by nature"? Yet it is true that when we become 
unresisting and submissive, our retrograde metamor- 
phosis is inevitable. A mind that becomes submissive 
to human dictations and human passions becomes so 



184 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

dwarfed that it may be crushed into any condition 
designed by its despotic ruler. A human mind with a 
spark of individuality or self-respect despises a despotic 
ruler, whether it be nature, man or God. No human 
being has a right to dictate what the actions, thoughts 
or life of another human being shall be ; any individual 
life which interferes with the normal development and 
progress of other lives should be diagnosticated as 
diseased, and in such a case he or she, whichever it may 
be, should be quarantined and treated for degeneracy. 
Neither despotic rulers nor their subjects evolve ; they 
merely retrograde into the habits of the lower animals. 
Granting that each human being is born with inherited 
tendencies transmitted from parent to child, we also 
admit that inherent will ftowe?' can be so developed that 
every inherited abnormal tendency of body or mind can 
be overcome ; therefore each individual life should have 
advantages that will insure opportunities for the devel- 
opment of a normal life, as such privileges belong to all, 
irrespective of sex, age or race. Even the Lower forms 
of life have inherent rights which intelligent human 
beings respect : such rights as protection from unneces- 
sary pain and from degradation ; as psychic degeneracy 
occurs when any individual life retrogrades into the 
habits of a still lower and less intelligent form. Psychic 
evolution can be traced from the very lowest or simplest 
forms of organic life to the highest, which are the most 
intelligent, because they possess the most complex ner- 
vous system by which they comprehend divine law T s. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

MAN'S INHUMANITY TO WOMAN 1 

Contents. — "Dr. Ripper" a Product of Modern Degeneracy. — The Craze 
among Men Physicians to perform Operations upon Women. — Phases of Ori- 
ficial Surgery. — Mechanical Practice is not the Highest Skill. — The Testicles 
are as "Offending Members" as the Ovaries. — Batty's Operation. — The 
Effect of Removal of the Reproductive Organs. — Equally Baneful in Men and 
Women. — The Prevailing Cause of Pelvic Diseases among Women. — Castra- 
tion the Remedy for Venereal Disease. — Why was there no Baby? — Woman's 
Barrenness not always due to Woman's Sterility. — Hypnotism used by Medical 
Degenerates. — Effect of Excessive Coition. — Sexual Intercourse should not be 
indulged in for " Pleasure." — The Control of Emotions. 

The " Dr. Ripper " of London, whose crimes against 
women have been mysteriously carried on for years, is 
one of the products of modern degeneracy, although the 
origin of such morbid characters leads back into the 
remotest ages. Within the last few years, however, 
these degenerates have increased in enormity, until 
women are now daily sacrificed by operators equally as 
morbid, who open the abdomens of women to remove 
the pelvic organs. Their victims are obtained in every 
conceivable way: by physical force, by will force, or 
hypnotism ; in homes, offices, hospitals, and even in 
churches ; upon the street, or in any secluded place 
where these degenerates can secure their victims ; such 
instances are not only recorded in the daily papers but 
in medical journals. This outrage upon women exceeds 
in cruelty and degradation any crime ever before com- 
mitted against any class of people. Slavery and intem- 
perance fall into insignificance compared with the many 

1 Quotations from various statistics and other authenticated records. 



l86 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

thousand women who have been deprived of health, of 
their sexual organs, and their lives, by these degenerates 
who are affected with psycho-sexual disorders and finan- 
cial greed. 

For years the public has been almost daily horrified 
by the public announcement of such crimes. For some 
time the " White Chapel " murders were supposed to 
have been committed by a "tramp" who was alluded 
to as " Jack the Ripper," but recently it has been discov- 
ered that these terrible operations were performed by a 
noted physician in London, who now has many follow- 
ers with such insane desires which have originated with 
their immoral thoughts as did " Dr. Ripper's." So long 
as the world sanctions the indecent practice of men 
physicians treating the pelvic organs of women, such 
abnormal characters will be found in every community 
operating on their victims. The insatiable desire of a 
certain class of doctors to remove women's pelvic organs 
is in reality a legalized mania, belonging to the same 
category as the "White Chapel " and the "Human Vivi- 
section " manias. 

" Operators ' " of the allopathic school of medicine 
boast of being the first to originate the practice of 
removing the uterus and ovaries; the homcepathic 
" operators " ' claim the distinction of originating the 
"American operation" or "orificial surgery," which 

lr rhe name operatomow refers to men who make a business of castrating women. 

2 Operators of the homoepathic schools are men who make a business of operating 
on the rectum and " pruning" the pelvic orifices. 

3 The originator of the "American Operation" charges each patient only one 
thousand dollars when the patient is not able to pay more, while his satellites take 
what they can get. Many of these operators advise women to submit to this opera- 
tion without adequately knowing their state of health, and perform the operation 
without diagnosticating the case. 



man's inhumanity to woman 187 

consists in the removal of two or three inches of the 
rectum and " pruning " the pelvic orifices ; in other 
words, the operators by means of scissors or knife trim 
off tissue around the urethra, vagina and rectum. The 
following are the various diseases which they claim to 
"cure by orificial surgery": dropsy, spinal irritation, 
locomotor ataxia, rheumatism, liver and kidney diseases, 
seminal weakness, paralysis, nervous prostration, asthma, 
catarrh, sterility, diseases of women, hay-fever, bronchitis, 
neuralgia, stomach and bowel troubles, and all other 
forms of the chronic disorders that have heretofore baf- 
fled the skill of the medical profession. Even cancers 
are materially benefited by the work. A large number 
of cases of deafness and blindness also respond readily 
to this work of orificial surgery. 

The same greed for operating is manifested by the 
operators of both schools. They often compel women 
to submit to operations for the removal of the supposed 
tumor when it has often proved, after the abdomen and 
uterus have been opened, that the uterus contained a 
living child instead of a tumor. Yet such they claim 
are "contributions to science." Nevertheless, the most 
scientific surgeons and physicians find very few pelvic 
operations necessary compared with the great number 
performed. There should be a board of consulting 
physicians who are capable of determining when oper- 
ations are necessary. Operations are largely mechanical 
procedures, requiring mechanical skill rather than a 
high degree of intellectual attainment. Nursing re- 
quires qualifications of a higher degree. 

In a recent article an operator says: "Of women 



1 88 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

whose ovaries are removed the sexual desire is notably 
diminished or extinguished, while in others the sexual 
desire is increased." In corroboration of this state- 
ment, another male writer cites a case where "the 
thirty-four year old wife of a farmer so exhausted him 
by her sexual demands that his health suffered very 
seriously. In order to save the husband's health the 
wife's ovaries were removed." Has any one ever heard 
of castrating a sexually diseased husband to save the 
wife's health ? 

Another operator who has become notorious because 
of the number of ovaries he has removed, says that 
" Some women who are passive in their sexual relations 
before their ovaries are removed become aggressive 
afterwards." Some of the operators of today declared 
a few years ago that : ' The ovaries were the prime 
movers and controlling agencies in the sexual system; 
that they are essential to the very existence of that 
system; that their office is the highest and first in the 
order of the events which collectively make the com- 
plete process of reproduction ; that a woman without 
ovaries is no woman ; that the ovaries gave to woman 
all her characteristics of body and mind." These were 
the sentimental statements of many male physicians 
before the removal of the ovaries had become a finan- 
cial success. At the present time these same men 
insist that " beyond the induction of sterility and prob- 
able absence of menstruation the removal of the ovaries 
does not detrimentally change woman's character, but 
gives her a fine physique." In fact they tell women 
almost anything to persuade them to submit to opera- 



man's inhumanity to woman 189 

ations. The operating mania has become so prevalent 
that a very large proportion of ovarian and rectal oper- 
ations are done either for financial gain or for an 
immoral purpose. The large fee is very tempting, and 
when the ovaries are removed men and women have 
no fear of the occurrence of pregnancy to interfere with 
their immoral indulgences. 

History hands down from the remotest period the fact 
that kings have caused the ovaries of women to be re- 
moved, producing female eunuchs which they after- 
wards used in their services. Various nations have 
practiced the removal of the breasts, clitoris, labia 
majora and labia minora, on account of the lewdness 
of women in those countries ; operators of this age 
have no desire to diminish women's sensual nature. 
Opening the abdomen of women was practiced long 
before the various schools of medicine existed. This 
psycho-sexual disease originated from the abuse and 
degeneracy of the sexual instincts which the first 
human beings inherited from their animal ancestors, 
during the evolution of the physical world. When 
human minds degenerate into animalism as a means of 
enjoyment, psycho-sexual abnormalities are the result. 

It is now estimated that one woman in eight is sterile ; 
that is cannot become pregnant. If ovarian operations 
continue increasing it will not be many years before it 
can be truthfully said that not one woman in eight 
hundred can become pregnant, because of having been 
a victim of an operation or of some venereal disease. 
Operations upon the pelvic organs of both married and 
unmarried women for slight ailment are so frequently 



190 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

advised and performed that it is now considered a trivial 
every day occurrence. An able medical writer recently 
made the statement that most of such cases could be 
cured without operations. 

In this age every intelligent physician knows that by 
the scientific use of electricity and medicine the ma- 
jority of cases of ovarian or uterine diseases, if not 
malignant or venereal, can be cured without jeopard- 
izing the life of the patient, and in all venereal diseases 
the removal of the ovaries does not cure or remove the 
disease. If the patient's life cannot be saved, there is 
no need of an operation. It is well known that when 
cancerous conditions exist, an operation usually hastens 
a fatal termination. When venereal disease exists, the 
testicles of men as well as the ovaries of women so 
affected might better be removed rather than have dis- 
eased children. The castrations of both men and 
women who have contracted venereal disease should be 
an enforced law of every nation, to prevent the degen- 
eracy of future generations, as such beings transmit 
their diseases to the third and fourth generations if 
permitted to propagate. 

A few years ago operators were informed by their 
instructors that an operation should be declined if 
there were grave structure lesions of any part of the 
vital organs, but within the last five years these instruc- 
tions have been disregarded. At the present time 
everyone who can be coaxed, frightened or forced into 
submitting to an operation, is mercilessly victimized, 
regardless of what are the conditions or what may be 
the consequence. 



MANS INHUMANITY TO WOMAN 191 

Operators claim that "pregnancy is no bar to their 
operation, nor is age, since young children and very 
old women have their ovaries removed." In fact any 
woman or young girl who can be persuaded to have 
her ovaries, uterus or part of the rectum removed, 
whether diseased or not, will have no trouble whatever 
in finding many operators ready to remove them, as 
the majority of "operators" prescribe the removal of 
these organs for all ills and conditions, and under all 
circumstances. 

By the term " Batty 's operation " is meant the removal 
of the ovaries from the human female whilst those 
organs are yet in a state of functional activity, with a 
definite object in view, viz., the arrest of the function 
of evolution and the production of the change of life. 
Another recent operating procedure is the removal of 
the uterus, ovaries and fallopian tubes entire at one 
operation. 1 

Pamphlets are being circulated by different operators 
boasting of the number of pelvic operations performed 
by them. One operator who reported fifty operations, 
says in reference to this great financial enterprise ; " Nor 
may I accord to myself the privilege of more than 
briefly referring to the brilliant history of the opera- 
tion which began less than a century ago with one 
Ephraim McDowel, which has crowned the originator 
with imperishable glory." It is quite proper to say here 

1 This is the operation which should usually be performed when the ovaries must 
be removed. If the uterus is retained after the ovaries are removed, it acts only 
as a foreign body, and is constantly making pressure upon various nerve centres, 
and thus disturbing the entire nervous system ; yet the removal of the nerve centres 
of the uterus and ovaries is almost as detrimental to the normal action of the 
nervous system. 



192 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

that when McDowel died in 1830, he had performed 
thirteen ovariotomies, with eight recoveries. Another 
brilliant operator operated nine times with only seven 
deaths. Notwithstanding their "great success as oper- 
ators," in 1843 the boldest of all surgeons then living 
wrote that " ovariotomy was murder, and that any one 
who performed it should be severely punished." 

" In 1858 another operator began a remarkable career 
as an ovariotomist, and with him commenced a new era 
in ovarian operation." Since then not only operations 
but operators have increased by the thousand. 

From the various medical colleges the graduates who 
have the least scientific knowledge and the least honor 
are most quickly seized with the mania for operating. 
They influence uninformed women not only to contrib- 
ute money to the support of surgical wards in hospitals 
where these operations can be performed, 1 but many of 
these women are persuaded to have their "offending: 
ovaries removed." When suffering women become more 
intelligent concerning the real cause of their pelvic dis- 
eases, they will know that the greater number of cases 
are due to venereal diseases inherited or acquired even 
from men who assume to be respectable. When women 
operators acquire the same audacity as men operators 
possess, the programme may be changed ; it will be the 
removal of the offending testicles instead of the offend- 
ing ovaries. 

The American Lancet says that just now one of the 

1 In many such institutions any operator who brings a patient to the hospital has 
the privilege of performing the operation. A certain class of nurses are employed 
by operators to secure as many victims as possible for the operators' financial bene- 
fit, who in turn gives their procuress remunerations. 



MAN S INHUMANITY TO WOMAN 1 93 

fashions is the castration of women. " This is done for 
a great variety of reasons. Castration of men for the 
relief of similar conditions has not yet come into 
fashion. But when women become more powerful in 
the professions, we shall expect that women physicians 
will introduce the fashion of castrating men for the relief 
of the numerous ills from which the male sex suffers. 
Particularly the old bachelors should be attended to. 
Testicles are of no use to such persons ; to be rid of 
them will remove temptation to incur disease and suffer- 
ing. As a fact, however, men hang on to their testicles 
like grim death, while women are easily persuaded to 
give their ovaries to the surgeon's knife." 

It will perhaps be interesting to learn how much 
attention the majority of the male operators are giving 
to the investigation of woman's pelvic organs, especially 
the ovaries, and that they have been so occupied that 
they have neglected their own sex, until some of the 
more thoughtful of their number have contributed arti- 
cles to medical journals in regard to this injustice. 

Recently a male physician published a treatise upon 
" The Diseases of and Operations on the Testicles." In 
calling the attention of his professional brothers to this 
subject he says: "Why have women, or rather their 
sexual apparatus, received so much attention by medical 
and other men ? Is it not because we all love these 
dear, tender creatures so much that we think of little 
else, and are wholly absorbed in the welfare of their 
reproductive organs, and thus the great affection that we 
carry in our bosoms and display for the opposite sex, 
causes us to see everything pertaining to them through 



194 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

a magnifying glass ? Or has it come to this, that it is an 
actual fact that there are no sound and healthy women 
to be found upon mother earth any more and no more 
to be born hereafter? Now on the other side, we hear 
little or nothing about the diseases of the testicles; very 
little if anything appears in the journals upon this sub- 
ject. Xo new works have lately been written upon the 
testicles. Are the ovaries in women not considered the 
counterpart of the testicles in men ? The former organs 
have received from the profession the kindest attention 
possible, the testicles comparatively speaking none. The 
question now comes up, Why have the ailments of the 
testicles been so neglected? Do they need attention? 
Is it true that every man is blessed with sound and 
healthy testicles? Is man endowed with generative 
organs entirely free from imperfections and liability to 
disease? I don't believe that such is the case. Is 
the medical profession to blame for not investigating 
the disease of men's reproductive organs ? If only one 
man out of ten were affected with some kind of disease 
of the testicles, and I believe this to be, what a rich 
field for study and inquiry is offered there for specialist 
testicologists ! " 

Thereupon this writer enumerates a number of dis- 
eases which have been neglected by physicians of his 
own sex. He cites a case of " a healthy wife whose hus- 
band is apparently well, but they have no children after 
four years of married life ; the husband wants a baby, 
and like all other selfish men wants by all means a boy 
baby. He thinks his wife is of course at fault; the 
family physician exhausts all his ingenuity. Next the 



MANS INHUMANITY TO WOMAN I95 

case is referred to a gynecologist, so pessaries are intro- 
duced ; iodine is applied locally to the neck of the womb 
for months ; a small basketful of medicine has been pur- 
chased from time to time. Every time local applications 
were made to the womb madam was assured by the 
gynecologist that she was getting better, but madam 
herself did not think so ; in her opinion she was getting 
worse all the time. One thing was certain: the baby 
did not come. At last her mind wandered; she became 
emaciated and despondent ; the case was taken from the 
gynecologist, and went into the hands of a neurologist. 
He very promptly decided that it was not the womb that 
was in fault but the nervous system, and sure enough he 
was right, for by this time it was the nervous system. 
Everything was done that could be thought of, even arti- 
ficial fecundation was tried. The woman submitted to 
all this patiently and with heroism that was astonishing, 
but it was all to no purpose ; the poor woman was now 
almost insane, but still there was no baby. But was she 
the cause in this case of sterility or barrenness ? By no 
means. I assured her that she would get well in time, 
dismissed her for the present, and asked her to send to 
me her husband. 

' I now turned my attention not to the wife, but the 
husband. In the meantime, having gained the con- 
fidence of my lady patient, I assured her that the 
gynecologist had corrected all her troubles in the most 
skilful manner ; that without doubt the neurologist had 
improved her nervous system in a remarkable degree, 
and that she would in time obtain the full benefit of his 
advice ; that she would in due time be ready for her 



I96 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

baby. I, however, gently informed her that her husband 
was somewhat in fault, which in time would also be 
remedied, and the baby would surely appear. From 
that moment the lady improved, became more cheerful 
and once more hopeful, and on the return of her hus- 
band from abroad, after a six months' separation, she 
was well and he was apparently so. She became preg- 
nant, happiness once more prevailed, and a boy baby 
was born to the excellent pair? 

After this physician had enumerated a few more cases, 
he says : " I would give more similar cases, but this is 
sufficient for illustration." He then contributes a few 
words in regard to neuralgic pains of the testicles and 
ovaries, from which both sexes suffer. In the case of a 
woman where all known means of relief have been 
tried and failed, and the removal of the offended ovary 
or ovaries is advised, she will readily and cheerfully con- 
sent. In the case of a man under the same conditions, 
he is not willing to give up one testicle, much less both. 
He prefers to suffer the most excruciating pain, until at 
last he lands at the insane asylum. " Neither is the 
removal of the testicles advised by men, or if proposed, 
it is done reluctantly. Why ? Can any one give a defi- 
nite answer ? The removal of the testicle or any other 
operation upon the appendages of man is not nearly so 
dangerous as the removal of the ovaries or any other 
operation upon the female reproductive organs." 

There certainly is need of reform. Woman's ovaries 
have received entirely too much attention. Were men's 
testicles as frequently removed, especially those of 
every man who had contracted venereal disease, it 



MANS INHUMANITY TO WOMAN 1 97 

would be the best work that could be done for the pre- 
vention of the propagation of syphilitic children, and 
the restoration of health to the human race. 

Thoroughly competent physicians or surgeons do not 
often find it necessary to remove the ovaries in order 
to reduce the inflammation or congestion, as scientific 
knowledge precludes mechanical operation of this kind. 
Some very crude specimens of humanity are entering 
second-grade medical colleges in order to learn to re- 
move the ovaries from woman. The most illiterate 
person can become a successful operator in a short 
time. Very ordinary doctors boast of the great number 
of ovaries they have removed, the number far exceed- 
ing those removed by the most competent surgeons. 
Only a few more years of such rapid removal of 
woman's pelvic organs and there will be few American 
women who can say they have not been operated upon. 

Hypnotism is practiced by the majority of operators 
to influence women to submit to operations. While 
the operators claim that " the removal of the ovaries 
will renew the youth of woman and will produce a fine 
physique," they know, but they do not always inform 
the patient, that the animal passions are often intensified 
and their nervous system shattered. 

Sexual emotions originate in the animal brain and 
cause a reflex irritation of the higher nerve centres as 
well as irritation of the spinal centres that supply the 
nerves of the pelvic organs. Frequent sexual emotions 
will cause permanent congestion and enlargement of 
the ovaries or testicles; but if these glands are re- 
moved more serious abnormal conditions develop in 



I98 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

the nerve centres of the brain and spinal cord, which 
control the action of the pelvic organs. Sexual emo- 
tions arising in the brain are the prime movers in 
the development and discharge of the ovules and 
spermatozoon. 

The same causes which excite the seminal fluid of 
the male to be expelled also cause excessive ovulation 
and menstruation of the female. Sexual desire excites 
the testicles or ovaries to an increased action beyond 
that which they ordinarily possess. Spermatic fluid 
or semen contains the spermatozoon, which are small, 
oval, flattened bodies with appendages; they resemble 
tadpoles in form, and are only discernible by the aid 
of the microscope ; they exist in every kind of animal 
semen. An excessive development in number of these 
germs produces psycho-sexual disease, which weakens 
and degrades both mind and body. 

The most scientific physicians as physiologists and 
pyschologists of all ages agree in opinion that the loss 
of one ounce of semen is more debilitating than the 
loss of forty ounces of blood. Hippocrates said, speak- 
ing of the semen: "The seed of man arises from all 
the humors of his body." Galen said : M When a person 
loses his semen he loses at the same time the vital 
spirit, so that it is not astonishing that frequent coition 
should enervate." Aristotle described the semen as the 
excrement of ailments, " Having the faculties of repro- 
ducing bodies like that which produce it." It was 
termed by Plato " a running of the spinal marrow," and 
by Epicurus it was called " a part of the soul and body." 
Pvthagoras said: " It is the flower of the parent blood," 



MAN S INHUMANITY TO WOMAN 1 99 

and Alcaeon considered it a " part of the brain." Others 
believe the semen is derived from the nervous system, 
and have pointed out certain ganglias of the brain 
controlling its action, through nerves which form com- 
munication between the brain and the testicles or the 
ovaries. The greater the excess of these secretions the 
greater the detriment to both body and mind. 

The wisest people of the past ages have at all times 
contended against the wasteful use of the seminal fluid, 
as it was ruinous to the mind as well as to the body. 
Said a distinguished philosopher: 'There are conti- 
nent men who do not evacuate semen for years. What 
becomes of the semen? It is not manufactured; there- 
fore this reserved strength supplies the nervous system. 
It is therefore a great mistake to suppose that conti- 
nence is detrimental to the constitution of either man 
or woman. A life of celibacy is never the cause of 
impotency or sterility; on the contrary, it is the abuse 
of the sexual organs that produces many of the most 
serious diseases, including consumption, nervous dis- 
eases and venereal diseases; these terrible disorders 
cause indescribable sufferings of humanity." 

The seminal fluid is said to be under the control of 
the will power, and a certain impression must be made 
on the mind before the animal passion is aroused or the 
expulsion of the semen can occur; therefore sexual 
intercourse, except for the purpose of conception, is 
degrading to both men and women, causing disease and 
degeneration. It is only the lower grade of intellect 
which cannot enjoy married life without frequent sexual 
indulgences. It has the same effect upon the mind as a 



200 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

diseased appetite ; the more it is indulged in the stronger 
will be the desire and the weaker becomes the power of 
the will to check the degrading descent. Those who 
indulge in sexual intercourse for pleasure lose mental 
power and strength of character, becoming more selfish, 
more gross and repulsive. Soon 4k legal" gratification 
does not satisfy them. They indulge in the unlawful 
and the promiscuous, which, to their surprise, they 
enjoy less. Like indulgence in alcoholic drinks, the 
more indulgence the less satisfaction. Soon other evils 
must contribute to stimulate what little pleasure is left 
to be derived from a sensual life, until the individual has 
sunk so low that he is incapable of getting any pleasure 
out of life. His existence has caused sorrow and dis- 
grace to those who once cared for him. 

The abnormal effects of frequent indulgence of sexual 
intercourse cause the entire being to become diseased 
and immoral ; the nervous system is disturbed, the judg- 
ment weakened, and congestion of the pelvic organs 
excites them to excessive action and permanent enlarge- 
ment and disease. Sexual excess weakens men and 
women morally and mentally ; the more often they yield 
to sensual desires the weaker are their will powers in 
resisting the solicitation of prostitution. If they once 
yield their virtue and honor vanish, and venereal conta- 
gion is the inevitable result. 

Men and women who indulge in pleasures which 
only excite the animal passions become physical, mental 
and moral degenerates. With such ancestors what can 
their offspring be ? It should be generally known that 
any exercise or amusement which stimulates the animal 



MAN S INHUMANITY TO WOMAN 201 

passions prevents the mind from developing normally. 
Habits suggesting impure thoughts degrade and ruin 
any class of people or individuals. A class of men and 
women known as libertines and prostitutes is thus pro- 
duced. In a state of truly refined society, where the 
appetites are not aroused by artificial stimulant engen- 
dered by unhealthy thoughts, men and women have 
their sexual instincts under complete control. They 
control their emotions instead of allowing their emo- 
tions to control them. Christianized intellects repre- 
sent human beings normal in body and mind, controlled 
by educated reason, and subject neither to the animal 
nature nor to another intellect. 



CHAPTER XIX 

SUBMISSIVE WOMEN VS. INDIVIDUAL WOMEN 

Contents. — Types of Submissive Women. — Submission often Another Name for 
Policy. — Women manage Men by appearing to submit to Them. — The Submis- 
sive Wife. — Submission of Woman degrading. — Dependence is Moral Weak- 
ness. — The Fallacy of the Idea of the Superiority of Either Sex. 

The woman who assumes to be submissive to man's 
authority, yet is not, belongs to the ancient Esther and 
Ruth style; they were very soft-spoken, and avoided 
stroking the royal fur the wrong way, so long as it was 
policy to do so. The}' also manifested extreme mental 
and physical weakness. Modern submissive women pre- 
fer to have men think that women occupy a position 
secondary and inferior to them. It is the politic woman 
with her assumed submission who rules the tyrannical 
man. She even assumes to obey his even* command, 
providing he commands sufficient means for her selfish 
indulgences. 

Such women consider it wise to keep the knowledge 
of their mental superiority 7 a secret, in order that they 
may more easily manage their victims. They regard 
men as they regard money. Yet there is a genuine type 
of the submissive wife who is as obedient to her husband 
as a spaniel, and is as delighted when he condescends to 
notice her. As he seldom does, she is usually despond- 
ent and nervous. Society says she is hysterical or weak- 
minded, and wonders why such a superior man married 
such a silly woman. Yet the disheartened, subdued, 
neglected wife thinks it is a noble thing to be a woman, 



SUBMISSIVE WOMEN VS. INDIVIDUAL WOMEN 2O3 

to be spiritual and not cruel as men are ; that man must 
labor for the support of woman, while woman suffers to 
create the race ; therefore women are much superior to 
men. She thinks God has taken special pains in creat- 
ing woman as the vine and man as the oak ; that the 
more persistent the wife clings the more sure she is of 
support. Her egotistical husband thanks the Lord that 
he was not created a woman, and boasts that man 
is made after God's own image, and therefore man is 
the head of woman. The weak wife is consoled with 
the idea that woman is the mother of the race, and like 
God a creator, which man cannot be. As time passes 
each is convinced of the inferiority of the other. Both 
the selfish husband and the submissive wife are opposed 
to equal rights, because in their degraded ideas of man 
and woman they think it absolutely necessary for one or 
the other to be the ruler. 

The egotistical man says woman is emotional, she 
cannot reason, and therefore has only her feelings and 
emotions to rely upon. Yet when called upon to enter 
into the struggle for existence, which comes to woman 
as well as to man at some period in life, then when both 
her mental and physical weakness is so apparent, the 
egotistical man is the first to condemn her because she 
lacks strength of character and ability, a lack which he 
once professed to admire and sought to perpetuate in 
her. 

The submissive woman has no desire to compete with 
man mentally. She consoles herself with the thought 
that it is his duty to support her mentally, as well as 
financially, while she tolerates his egotism and tyranny. 



204 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

She pities him for his blissful ignorance and degradation, 
and consoles herself that she can manifest more patience 
and affection, even while disguising her animosity. He 
imagines he is the ruler, and believes that to intimidate 
his wife makes her more sympathetic and charitable for 
his moral weaknesses, which he is well aware has caused 
his wife to become a mental and physical wreck. Such 
unhealthy social conditions cause disease of the bodv 
and death to the higher development of the mind. 
These diseased beings contaminate more or less those 
who associate with them. 

Morally weak women, rather than labor for independ- 
ence, say they need some one whom they can look up 
to, husbands to support them, and take care of them. 
They do not reason that financial independence gained 
by individual physical, moral and mental efforts is quite 
as necessary and beneficial to woman as to man, and 
that when women cease to be submissive to man's 
authority they begin to develop physical, moral and men- 
tal strength. When man boasts of physical strength 
and woman boasts of physical helplessness, it is a sure 
indication of abnormal social conditions. Any one 
who usurps authority over another, retrogrades into an 
egotistical tyrant, Unworthy of respect. The true man 
and the true woman boast neither of strength nor of 
weakness. Moral and physical health is just as neces- 
sary to one sex as to the other, although tyrannical 
men and submissive women have always contended 
that man should possess superior physical strength 
without virtue. The highest mental and moral develop- 
ment must necessarily be possessed by the same indi- 



SUBMISSIVE WOMEN VS. INDIVIDUAL WOMEN 205 

vidual. They cannot exist separately to attain to the 
highest standard. 

In comparing the brains of men and women, it has 
been customary to compare the highest developed 
brains of men with the lowest developed brains of 
women. A German scientist who died recently had 
for years insisted that woman could not possibly be 
equal to man mentally, because her brain is smaller. 
An autopsy revealed the fact that this man's brain was 
less in weight than the brain of the average illiterate 
woman. From unjust comparisons the submissive 
woman has concluded that woman is mentally inferior 
to man ; while the individual woman has long ago rec- 
ognized the fact that mental superiority in either man 
or woman is acquired by education and a financial 
occupation which assists in developing mental powers. 



CHAPTER XX 

MAN'S EGOTISTIC DOGMAS VS. WOMAN'S INDIVIDUALITY ' 

Contents. — Monotheistic Dogmas. — The Religious Parliament and " Manism." — 
The Masculine God and the Man-worship. — Paul's Corruption of Christianity. 
— Men as Gods and Women as Servants. — Resultant Conditions in India. 

Brahmanism, which is said to be the oldest religion, 
did not originally claim any human being as its head. 
The Brahmins believed in a Creator, a Preserver and 
a Destroyer; but failing to recognize the true divine 
Trinity, they degenerated into believing only in an 
egotistic masculine God, which was afterwards por- 
trayed in their Scriptures. The Vedas, like other Scrip- 
tures, were held to be inspired; their doctrines were 
revealed to man only, as all monotheistic religions 
assumed to be; and they believe only in God the 
Father. 

Some of the teachings of the Vedas declare that 
a husband, however criminal or defective, is in the 
place of the Supreme Being to his wife, just as all 
the prevailing monotheistic religious creeds teach. 
These monotheistic dogmas are: Judaism, formulated 
in the Mosaic law; Mohammedanism, formulated in the 
Koran; and Paulism, promulgated in modern dogmas. 
These man-made creeds agree in the universal father- 
hood of God and the brotherhood of man, and they 
declare the superiority of man to woman. 

Egotistic men have for ages taught the command- 

1 Extracts from the World's Parliament of Religions, and a report of the result 
of man's rule in India. 



man's egotistic dogmas vs. woman s individuality 207 

ments of men as divine commands. Confucius, the 
Chinese sage, 500 B.C., and Zoroaster, 1000 B.C., 
founder of the Parsee religion, taught that the wife 
shall be obedient to her husband, and in A.D. 100 
Paul taught that man is the head of the woman. Thus 
Paul corrupted Christianity as Confucius and Zoroaster 
corrupted the ancient religion. 

Self-made priests claim that God's Written Word 
comes direct to them for authoritative use; by this 
assumed authority they compelled ignorant and super- 
stitious humanity to submit to any tyranny they wished 
to impose. In the so-called philosophical religions, one 
of their apostles, Socrates, asked • " Is there a human 
being with whom you can talk less than with your 
wife ? " Plato declared that society is wholly disorgan- 
ized when slaves are disobedient to their masters and 
wives on an equality with their husbands. Aristotle 
characterized woman as a being of an inferior order. 
Luther, one of the modern creed-makers, said : " No 
gown less becomes a woman than that she should be 
wise." A bishop of today says: ''Man is the head of 
the family; the family is an organic unity, and cannot 
exist without subordination. Man is the head of the 
family because he is stronger, and because the family 
grows out of a warlike state, and to man was entrusted 
the duty of defense." 

Such are the sentiments of the leaders of the great 
systems of religious dogmas, and they reflect the spirit 
of dogmatic religions from the beginning until now. 
These creeds are being recognized as cruel, barbed- 
wire fences, wounding those who would stray to broader 



208 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

pastures, and hurting those who come in. They all 
teach man's superiority to woman, and that woman 
should be obedient to man's authority. 

In 1893 there convened a religious parliament com- 
posed of representatives of every religious creed made 
by men. This great legislative body was distended 
with lords spiritual and lords temporal of opposite 
creeds and opinions. Yet they agree unanimously that 
" man is the highest thing under heaven next to God " ;. 
that they would all unite like the Moslem brotherhood 
and stand upon a perfect equality, recognizing only the 
fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. These 
religious dogmas were expressed by followers of Brahma, 
Buddha, Zoroaster, Confucius, Mohammed and Paul. 
What they had to say concerning God and man should 
be read by every woman, in order to comprehend the 
selfishness of man's religions. 

The following quotations can be found in the two vol- 
umes of the World's Parliament of Religions. They 
are expressed thus : " Oh wise men of the East and of 
the West! who believe only in the fatherhood of God 
and the brotherhood of man ! God seeking after man > 
man seeking after God. Man is the highest thing under 
heaven next to God ; that the young men of the Orient 
are preparing to take possession of the earth with their 
brothers of the great West." They certainly need not 
have announced this, as the world is well aware of the 
fact that men are ever trying to take possession of 
the earth ; yet they have not succeeded in doing so, nor 
or they likely to do so in the future. 

A promine-nt delegate said : " Is it not obvious that 



MAN S EGOTISTIC DOGMAS VS. WOMAN S INDIVIDUALITY 209 

the brotherhood of man can only be expected to follow 
on the acknowledgment of the fatherhood of God?" 
The ancient brothers claimed that Buddha was the 
first to establish the brotherhood twenty-four centuries 
ago. Their modern brothers were equally as positive 
that " Paul became the first human announcer of the 
character and glorious doctrine of modern times, — 
the human brotherhood." Yet both the ancient and 
modern representatives of creeds agreed that " all the 
legislations of Moses had in view the development of 
national brotherhood." 

One brother announced that " men with opposite 
views, denominations with contradictory principles and 
histories, can form one congregation, one household, one 
body, for however short a time, when animated by one 
spirit. Who is or what is that spirit ? It is the spirit of 
God himself. This unity of man with man is the unity 
of man with God ; and the unity of man with man in 
God is the kingdom of heaven ; and may all our reli- 
gions merge into the fatherhood of God and the brother- 
hood of man." These brothers of all nations insisted 
that humanity should accept the fatherhood of God and 
the brotherhood of man as including heaven and earth, 
and that each of their creeds were perfect revelations of 
the will of a masculine God. 

One brother expressed his ideas of man's greatness 
thus : " Man finds his universal, immortal, essential, 
spiritual, and objective self represented in the Holy 
Spirit. In the Holy Spirit is the higher corporative life 
of man, and in living the life of the spirit he lives the 
life of his noble self." Another exclaimed: "Oh man! 



210 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

made in God's image and linked to and nourished bv 
nature ! " Thus they ignore the idea of a divine Mother, 
and at the same time appease their conscience by imper- 
sonating the physical world as mother nature. 

Others express themselves thus : " The Bible begins 
and ends with man. It gives man one God, one hope, 
one goal and destiny. The fatherhood of God is the 
basis of man's brotherhood. All monotheistic faith of 
the Bible establishes the human brotherhood. It was 
the consciousness of God indwelling in man, or the 
biblical teachings of man's being a child of God, 
that rendered humanity one " ; although some of the 
brothers admitted that the conception of God's likeness 
to man is as much platonic as pythagorean or as it is 
biblical. 

Representatives from New Zealand, Africa and Ar- 
menia, the oldest countries of the world, with their 
brothers of the younger nations, expressed their ego- 
tistic belief in the universal brotherhood of man and 
the fatherhood of God. They addressed each other 
thus : " God is our common Father. Brothers of the 
contemplative East, and sons of the West : Behold how 
good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell to- 
gether in unity. This notable event is a growth whose 
roots reach far and deep. The germs of it have been 
in the world from the days of Paul." 

Representatives from Hindustan boasted that "there 
is not one woman priest from the Himalayas to Cape 
Comorin." The greatest number of these represent- 
atives of the different religions of the world were from 
oriental nations, whose governments are despotic; not 



MANS EGOTISTIC DOGMAS VS. WOMAN S INDIVIDUALITY 21 I 

governments of the people and by the people, but each 
nation is governed by the will of one human master; 
therefore all these nations of the earth who have 
taught the masculine idea of God, exclusively, have 
chosen some one man to be worshiped as a God, — 
man, or prophet, and their followers submit to their 
dictation. These prophets have sanctioned man's vices, 
and condemn woman as the author of all evil. Such 
prophets invariably set bonds to the sphere of women. 
Their teachings with reference to women in India is 
that women are greater sinners than men; that they 
hardly know the difference between truth and false- 
hood, and so are the greatest snares to mankind. 

The following statement was made by one of the 
most intelligent speakers from a foreign land : "Among 
all Buddhist sects and in all Buddhist lands the position 
of woman is an inferior and servile one. She is house- 
less ; she is the creature of three obediences : in her 
childhood she is subject to the will of her father; in 
adult life to the will of her husband; and to her son's 
will when her husband is dead. A woman is not per- 
mitted to enjoy independence. Her father, her hus- 
band, her brother may command her to spend weary 
years in the loathsome life of a brothel for his pecuni- 
ary gain. 1 To these sinners with the three obediences 
there is left but one choice between obedience and 
death. Their marriages are controlled by their proph- 
ets; and today these cruel tyrants and instigators of 
child-marriage are even protected by masculine rulers. 

1 In Japan many thousand young girls are sold yearly and are consigned to the 
yoshiwari, or brothel district, to lead the lives of prostitutes. It is needless to add 
that the incomes they thus earn are turned over to their fathers. 



212 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

The following horrible condition existing in India 
and legalized under British rule is the marital posses- 
sion of little girls. The following cases were reported 
to the Government and signed by fifty-five women 
physicians practicing medicine in India. The reports 
of these doctors concerning child-marriage in India 
were published in the "Medica. Missiir.ary Rtc:rd' % 
of recea: date. 

The following incidents have come under the obser- 
vation of one and another of these medical petitioners : 

(a) Aged nine. Day after marriage left femur dis- 
located, pelvis crushed out of shape, flesh hanging in 
shreds. 

(fi) Aged ten. Unable to stand, bleeding profusely, 
flesh much lacerated. 

(c) Aged nine. So violently outraged as to be al- 
most beyond surgical repair. Her husband had two 
other living wives, and spoke excellea: English. 

(d) Aged ten. A very small child, and entirely un- 
developed physically. This child was bleeding to death 
from the rectum. Her husband was a man about forty 
years of age, weighing not less than one hundred and 
forty-five pounds. He had accomplished his desire in 
an unnatural way. 

(e) Aged nine. Lower limbs completely paralyzed. 
(J~) Aged about twelve. Laceration of the peri- 
neum, extending through the sphinc:^: ini. 

j- Aged about ten. Weak from loss of blood. 
Stated that great violence had been done her in an un- 
natural way. 

(fi) Aged about twelve. Pregnant; delivered by 



MANS EGOTISTIC DOGMAS VS. WOMAN S INDIVIDUALITY 213 

craniotomy with great difficulty, on account of the im- 
mature state of the pelvis and maternal passage. 

(z) Aged about seven. Died in great agony after 
three days. 

(/-) Aged about ten. Condition most pitiable. After 
one day in the hospital was demanded by her husband 
for his " lawful use," he said. 

(/) Aged eleven. From great violence done her 
person, will be a cripple for life. No use of her lower 
extremities. 

(in) Aged about ten. Crawled to the hospital on 
her hands and knees. Has never been able to stand 
erect since her marriage. 

(n) Aged nine. Dislocation of pubic arch, and un- 
able to stand or put one foot before the other. 

The memorial refers also to the sentimental religious 
sanctions and superstitions, promoting and supporting 
this fiendish custom ; sensuality deters the British gov- 
ernment from interfering, while assuming it to be a 
matter of religious right. 

Among the so-called higher class of Hindoos it is 
customary to have their children married when they 
are as young as seven or eight ; in cases not very infre- 
quent, as young as four or five. 

Intelligent people are beginning to recognize the tyr- 
anny of the animal nature which has been ruling the 
world, and are witnessing the people agitated by the 
same state of mind which existed when "antiquity's 
pride was lowered to the dust, and philosophers and 
priests found their strength exhausted, the suffering, 
sorrowing, and weeping sought refuge from the ap- 



214 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

proaching storm, yearning to escape from the common 
woes and miseries of a world shattered within and 
without. Neither the stoic in his overbearing pride 
and self-admiration, nor the cynic with his contemp- 
tuous sneer could make life worth Living." 

Neither can the wholesale monopoly of the brother- 
hood of man make life worth living. The promulgation 
of the egotistical man accounts for " man's religions 
being so scraggy in growth and so unsuccessful in bene- 
fiting humanity." 



CHAPTER XXI 

MAN'S ERRONEOUS IDEAS OF GOD AND WOMAN 

Contents. — Various Ideas of God. — The Adam-man has not yet evolved suffi- 
ciently to recognize the Divine Mother. — Man's Low Estimate of Woman. — 
To be Pure in Heart is a Higher Mission than Parentage. — The Fatal Termina- 
tion of Man's Selfish Dogmas. 

The modern men of the savage races think of God as 
the great Father or Chief, who leads them to mercilessly 
destroy their enemies. Men of the so-called Christian 
nations believe God to be a great King, who is partial to 
a certain class of people, to whom all others are to be 
brought into subjection. They portray God as the great 
head of the human family, after whose image each man 
was made lord, to rule over each individual family as 
judge and dictator. They also accept Christ as the Son 
of God the Father, yet as having only a human mother. 

They believe that Christ came to earth to unite the 
fatherhood of God with the brotherhood of man. Yet 
there are a few of their number who are becoming wise 
enough to admit that man knows but in part ; also that 
a correct idea of God is beyond all conception ; that a 
wise man will not glory in his wisdom, nor the rich man 
in his wealth, nor the strong man in his might. This is 
certainly a symptom of a fatal termination of the ego- 
man, yet he may survive many years, to the detriment of 
the human family. 

The so-called scientific men vary greatly in their ideas 
of God. There are those who say there is no personal 
God ; only a force. Others believe that this force creates 



2l6 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

the entire mineral, vegetable and animal world in order 
to make man, who is the highest possibility of force ; 
and that all of man's created subjects, when he has no 
more use for them, are to be annihilated. There are 
others who believe that God rules according to exact 
laws ; that he does not condescend to listen to or answer 
human petitions ; that his throne is the throne of a 
monarch ; his rule is the rule of one whose will is law. 
The modern man's idea of God is expressed by one of 
the most highly educated male ministers of today, who 
says : " Truly our God is a great God, for the glory of 
the heavens and the handiwork of the earth are but his 
outer garments. The sun itself is not to God's great- 
ness what a diamond ring is to a man. Vast indeed is 
the world's house, most beautiful all its appointments ; 
but the Infinite Mind that fashioned and the all-loving 
Providence that adorned are a thousand-fold more than 
the material house. He who is the world's house- 
holder is also the world's Father. But each pilgrim 
child may approach God at whatever level he pleases. 
" The larger view of God according to the sublime view 
of Jesus Christ is that ' God is Love.' Therein all con- 
ceptions of the Deity have their climax and consum- 
mation, for his love includes all force, justice, duty, 
providence ; it gathers up whatever is true in all other 
views ; it completes that which is fragmentary. Through 
Christ the unknown ceases to be mere brightness with- 
out the central orb or nucleus; the arch-thunderer 
becomes a marvel of gentleness and tenderness; the 
silent one is no longer without voice or vision. Oh ! 
beautiful teaching! Clothing the divine One with 



MANS ERRONEOUS IDEAS OF GOD AND WOMAN 217 

power, because strength alone can be gentle; clothing 
him with justice, because justice is an inflection of 
mercy; surrounding him with laws and penalties, be- 
cause his penalties are medicines and his laws are divine 
pathways leading to happiness and peace ! 

" Jesus Christ caused the Father to stand forth in an 
alluring atmosphere of strength and gentleness, of gen- 
erosity and magnanimity. His throne was clothed with 
wondrous attraction. He stood forth possessed of such 
unexampled richness of mind and heart as that whatever 
is admirable or striking or beautiful in nature or life 
must be laid under contribution and used as an alphabet 
for interpreting his riches. To all other alluring and 
illuminating names Christ added that of Father, a name 
which with that of mother showers all sweet memories 
and suggestions upon the human soul. Thereby Christ 
opened up, as it were, a heart throbbing with love itself. 
The soul is a harp, and every string vibrates sweet melo- 
dies when the parental name is struck. 

' The mother-love hovers over the cradle as the star of 
the East stood over the sacred manger. Human nature 
is never so nearly divine as when the cradle becomes a 
temple and the babe is a divinity for those who brood 
above it. For that little unheeding, important bundle, 
the mere seed of life, the mother-heart pours out all the 
royal tides of love, asking no reward save the privilege 
of service and the opportunity of nourishing it out of 
nothingness and littleness into largeness and beauty; 
and though later on in life the child, through deceit and 
flattery, goes astray, and flies from home only to be shat- 
tered and wrecked, yet the sacred tide of love still flows 



2l8 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

on, and the golden cord of love unrolling and still unroll- 
ing holds the child fast and draws it back out of all the 
confusion and storm. Having borne the child's sickness 
and infancy, having carried its ignorance and disobe- 
dience in youth, at length the parent bears its follies and 
vices, and even its crimes. Between the cradle and the 
grave there is not a single hour when the maternal heart 
will not open wide the arms to protect the child by rea- 
son of the great love she bears it. 

" Jesus Christ asks the word father and all the tender 
and sweet association of childhood to interpret God 
unto men. He asked men to sit down by the stream 
of memory as by the river of water of life, and through 
the image of parent loving and beloved interpret God's 
glowing, glorious mind and heart. For his love includes 
the love of friend, companion and parent, and is more 
than all." 

This is truly man's highest conception of the divine 
Father ; and as he does not recognize the divine Mother, 
he gives man's highest conception of the human mother 
thus : " The mother-love hovers over the cradle as the 
star of the East stood over the sacred manger." Mother- 
hood is here represented as an inanimate subject, con- 
trolled as the stars are controlled by laws decreed by a 
superior power termed mind. 

In his infancy man is a divinity for his mother to 
brood over, and his cradle a temple. " For that little 
unheeding, important bundle, the mere seed of life, the 
mother-heart pours out all the royal tides of love, asking 
no reward save the privilege of service and the opportu- 
nity of nourishing it out of nothingness and littleness 



MANS ERRONEOUS IDEAS OF GOD AND WOMAN 219 

into largeness and beauty." This sentiment, however, 
does not harmonize with Christ's teachings. As men 
were leading the Saviour of the world to his crucifixion 
he said to the women who followed in sorrow, and to all 
women who have since followed his teachings : " Daugh- 
ters of Jerusalem weep not for me, but weep for your- 
selves and for your children. For behold the days are 
coming in which they shall say, Blessed are the barren 
and the wombs that never bare." — Luke xxiii. 28, 29. 
- Women may learn from Christ's teaching that bearing 
children is not woman's highest mission ; but that to be 
pure in heart is much more essential both to man and 
woman than parentage can be. Is a mother's life and 
thoughts to be no higher than a slavish desire to serve 
and nourish a life which later goes astray or flies from 
home only to be shattered and wrecked ? Where is the 
intelligent and morally pure mother who would wish to 
kiss the lips or to be associated in the home with a 
prodigal son or daughter? Does repentance atone for 
one who brings back to the home the most loathsome 
diseases, the virus of which is conveyed even by a kiss ? 
Or must it be, as man would have it, that the human 
mother, after having borne the child through the perils 
of infancy, and having borne its ignorance and disobe- 
dience in youth, must at length bear its follies, vices, and 
crimes, while the father accepts a divine invitation to 
"sit down by the stream of memory, as by the river of 
water of life, and through the image of parent loving 
and beloved interpret God's glowing, glorious mind and 
heart?" Does this "ideal father" see God's image in 
himself as he sits "by the stream of memory"? Poor 



220 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

Adam-man. His reflection in the stream of memc ry 
shows him posing as the most egotistical and tyrannical 
animal that the physical world has ever produced, while 
poor Eve-man has been the burden-bearer of all the ills 
of earth, and the most subjective of all animals. Today 
the human family are witnessing the fatal termination of 
man's selfish dogmas; and like the death of the lower 
animals, in their last moments they make the greatest 
efforts to exist ; yet the prognosis is that in the last part 
of the nineteenth century the dying efforts of the ego- 
man's organized selfishness will cease. The sooner the 
career of this animal monstrosity 7 is ended the sooner 
will the human family equally and normally evolve. 



CHAPTER XXII 

WOMAN'S IDEAS OF GOD 

Contents. — How Woman became Subject to Man. — Christ and His Divine 
Mother. — Woman's Idea of God includes the Divine Mother. — The Human 
Family the Type of the Divine Family. 

Women will very soon establish the worship of the 
divine Mother as they now worship the divine Father 
and the divine Christ, — the children's personal God. 
Woman now recognizes that it was through her failure 
to establish the worship of the divine Mother that she 
became subject to man ; yet in this century she is 
making great progress in the study of the relation of 
the divine and human families, by which the worship 
of the divine Mother will be established. 

Christ's Christianity teaches humanity the true idea 
of the divine Father and the divine Child. Such a 
step is necessary before the human family can compre- 
hend the true idea of the divine Mother or the divine 
Trinity; as humanity increases in wisdom the ideas of 
the divine nature increase in sublimity and purity. 
Christ first came to human children and especially 
blessed them, as they were first to follow his example. 
The result of the new childhood is the children's 
Christian endeavor of all churches and all lands where 
children are learning to follow the teaching of the per- 
fect Christ-child, who so wonderfully united in one form 
the divine and perfect human child. 

Another result of Christ's teaching is the true new 
woman, or the true Christian woman, who worships the 



222 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

divine Mother as she also worships the divine Father 
and the divine Child-Christ. She studies the relation 
of the divine Mother to the human mother in the 
work of the redemption of the world, and the relief of 
suffering. The divine Mother as portrayed in the 
original languages of the Bible should be especially 
studied by women. This is their own individual right, 
as to man has been given the right to study and learn 
of the special work of the divine Father. Children 
should have the right to especially reverence Christ as 
their personal God, as they will afterward in manhood 
and womanhood include in their worship the divine 
Father and the divine Mother. 

The truths of the Bible should be seen in three 
distinct aspects, that the human family may learn its 
true relation to the divine Family. Man in his one- 
sided view has interpreted himself as god and woman as 
his subject; and he will not acknowledge that the woman 
and the child should equally co-exist. To comprehend 
the equality of the human trinity will result in lifting up 
and exalting the true relationship of the human family. 
Neither Person in the divine Family is greater or less ; 
therefore the three are equal. Neither person in the 
human family is greater or less ; each is co-equal with the 
other. The prophecy that the reign of the Adam-man 
should bring subjection, pain and sorrow to woman has 
been amply verified. The prophecy has been fulfilled, and 
it is time that the reign of the Adam-man should end. 
Christ carries the trinity out of superiority* of one and in- 
equality into individuality and equality. Neither male 
nor female is " head " of the family which is founded on 
truth and justice. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

EARTH'S EVOLUTION 1 

Contents. — Male and Female Principles in all Evolution. — Spiritual Evolution. 
— The Evolution of the Earth. — The Protoplasmic Cell Male and Female. — 
Development of Complexity. — More Complex Organism means Higher Psychic 
Development. — The Source of all Life is the Divine Father and Divine Mother. 

Earth's psychic evolution is caused by two creative 
minds, whom man terms God and woman terms the 
divine Father and the divine Mother. Each divine 
Parent breathes forth " the breath of life " which sus- 
tains all other forms of life. These two psychic prin- 
ciples or breath of life are not only the source of each 
individual life, but are the source of all physical and 
psychical powers which 'produce all inanimate and ani- 
mate creation. These two psychic powers or princi- 
ples are represented by various terms, which may be 
arranged thus: 

Masculine, Feminine, 

Positive, Negative, 

Centripetal, Centrifugal, 

Afferent, Efferent, 

Sensory, Motor, 

Anode, X Cathode. 

X represents the union of these two psychic powers 
which produce all physical forces and individual forms. 

Through the past ages the growth of the Bible in 
itself is also a notable example of evolutionary unfold- 
ment of two spiritual principles. " Spiritual evolution," 
says Henry Wood, "like physical evolution, is recog- 
nized by means of new standpoints gained, which open 

Quotations from various scientific works. 



224 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

up to humanity broader views and superior conditions, 
as step by step we make a long and toilsome ascent up 
a steep mountain pass, and at length the summit is 
gained, as if by enchantment our eyes behold vast ex- 
panse of sea or landscape, which before was all unre- 
vealed. How quickly the weariness of the ascent fades 
out amidst the glories of the final achievements." 

Humaniry r recognizes three general results of these 
two vital powers upon the earth ; viz., physical, intellec- 
tual and spiritual evolution, xlccording to both the Bible 
and scientific research the earth, like other planets in 
evolving first existed in a gaseous or nebular state ; the 
primordial, gaseous elements parting with their heat 
became liquid masses; and these, by still further cooling, 
were covered by a constantly thickening crust. By secular 
contraction and by action of . water, the crust of the 
earth finally acquired its present condition. 

Those who beheld at the World's Columbian Expo- 
sition that magnificent panorama of the volcanoes of 
the Hawaiian Islands witnessed, no doubt, a miniature 
representation of the formative processes of the earth's 
first crust. This was practically demonstrated recently 
bv a volcanic eruption in Hawaii, M the land where the 
hurricane is a gentle zephyr ; the land of the fire, which 
contains the two greatest volcanoes on the face of the 
earth ; the land which God has not yet finished creating." 

According to geological investigation, in the primi- 
tive ages of the world as the molten surface lost its heat 
it solidified, and through the ages which followed it was 
transformed into the Azoic rocks, which geologists say 
were the first rocks formed. These through various 



EARTH S EVOLUTION 225 

chemical processes and also by disintegration became 
the earth's first solid surface, — the Azoic rocks, which 
constitute the solid basis of the world. During the 
Azoic age the creative minds evolved living proto- 
plasm, and from this material created the simplest indi- 
vidual cells, endowing them with vital powers. Of 
these first unicellular vegetable organisms, some of 
which are termed protococcus or algas, the male and 
female exist in a single cell, yet each cell is capable of 
separating into an individual male and an individual 
female alga and again uniting to develop male and 
female offspring. This differentiation of protoplasmic 
material in the vegetable world has ever since existed 
as male and female vegetable life. By the rearrange- 
ment of the cells living protoplasm became the physical 
basis of the vegetable and animal world, from which 
organized bodies are developed. Each age of vege- 
table and animal life contributed to make the succeed- 
ing age more complex; thus from simpler forms were 
created more complex organisms, capable of manifest- 
ing life in a higher degree. In the later formation of the 
Azoic rock is found graphite and limestone, both of 
which are produced either directly or indirectly by the 
disintegration of vegetable and animal life. Graphite 
can be and nearly always is formed out of the remains 
of plants ; and almost all limestones are of organic 
origin. Orderly succession of species of plants and 
animals followed during the succeeding ages. Geolo- 
gists state that after the Azoic age there came into 
existence the Lower Silurian period. In that age mol- 
lusks or shell-fish were the prevailing types of life. The 



226 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

trilobites, a mollusk somewhat similar to the "king- 
crab," were abundant, and cuttle-fish nearly twenty feet 
long were common. All the known plants of this age 
were seaweeds. 

The Upper Silurian period produced still more com- 
plex plants and animals. That period was a preparatory 
time for the coming Devonian period, or the age of 
fishes, in which the greater complexity of elements and 
the more complex organic structures were developed. 
In that period the first vertebrates came into existence, 
among them sharks of large size. The later fishes 
resembled more closely the reptiles, and the latter in 
great numbers appeared at the close of the period. The 
Devonian was also the coral period of the ancient world, 
although many varieties of plants and animals appeared. 
It was not until Carboniferous times that "luxuriant vege- 
tation clothed the land with forest and jungle." The 
vegetation then consisted mainly of cryptogams, or 
flowerless plants. Ferns were abundant, exceeding in 
size any species of ferns of the present day. This closed 
the Paleozoic age. 

The Mesozoic, termed also the Reptilian age, followed. 
During that age reptiles and birds were extreme in size 
and number ; and that in turn gave place to the Ceno- 
zoic age, when mammals appeared upon the earth ; then 
vegetation had decreased in size, but had become more 
complex in quality. 'Deciduous trees of species now 
existing and similar to the oak, poplar, maple, hickory, 
dogwood, mulberry, magnolia, cinnamon, fig, sycamore 
and many other fossil remains have been found in the 
tertiary strata of rock that belong to the Mammalian 






EARTH S EVOLUTION 227 

age. In that age, when reptiles had decreased in size 
and number, the first snakes appeared. The species of 
birds were not reptilian, or long-tailed, like those that 
had existed during the Reptilian age ; they were similar 
to the modern birds, the climbers, waders and perchers. 
The mammals in the early period of the Mammalian 
age were of much larger size than those which existed 
later in that age. In each succeeding age, from the 
Azoic until the last period of the Mammalian age, 
the animal organization had become more complex in 
material and in structure. 

Each succeeding evolution of animal life possessed 
finer and more complex nervous systems by which each 
organism manifested its individual life until the Psycho- 
zoic age was reached, — the epoch during which the 
human family was created capable of evolving altruistic 
spiritual natures. From first to last the living species of 
each age evolved the next higher physical order, while 
soul progression has ever been continued during all the 
age of the world ; and each individual after a physical 
death passes on to another world, to enter upon a life 
suited to the evolution attained while living upon this 
planet; normally all life evolves. 

The following is a recapitulation : Protoplasm is the 
physical basis of all psychical bodies; the atomic and 
molecular rearrangement of protoplasm produces dif- 
ferent elements and compounds. Each vegetable and 
animal life requires a definite arrangement of atoms 
and molecules to insure its individual form. It has 
been scientifically proved that a certain complexity of 
the physical elements is required to produce the male 



228 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

of each species and a still higher complexity to produce 
the female of the same species ; that each age requires 
more complex chemical elements to produce the more 
complex preceding age. Thus it is proved that in the 
evolution of animal life the female in each species re- 
quires a more complex physical structure than the male, 
in order to develop the prenatal structure of the off- 
spring. Throughout the entire vegetable and animal 
kingdoms two distinct life principles, one male and the 
other female, exist. Therefore two life principles must 
have existed before creation or the evolution of either 
vegetable or animal life, and must still exist to support 
each individual life ; and may we not say that all life has 
originated from two distinct vital principles or powers 
which pervade all space and create and sustain each 
individual life ; and that the source of these two prin- 
ciples or powers is the divine Father and the divine 
Mother. 

In the animal evolution, species are transformed by 
environment, intelligent selection, and normal breeding; 
among all forms of life, whether vegetable or animal, the 
union of the two sex principles, the male and female, 
causes each succeeding individual life to appear upon 
the earth. 

From " The Evolution of Sex," by Geddes and Thom- 
son, one may learn that " The origin of different sex in 
plants was discovered in 1793. The stamen or testicles 
belong to the male flower. The carpels, or ovaries, 
belong to the female flower; these physical organs of 
plants occupy different parts of each flower. The flower 
or the entire plant may be called a bisexual or hermaph- 



EARTH S EVOLUTION 229 

rodite plant, because it possesses both male and female 
reproductive cells. As with animals, when both repro- 
ductive cells originated in one organism, it is termed 
an hermaphrodite animal." 

Unisexual plants and animals are those in which the 
male and female reproductive cells develop in separate 
bodies. The bisexual plants or animals are those in 
which the sexes develop in one body. Such a condition 
is often found among the lower forms of vegetable and 
animal life. Nevertheless, they are distinctly individual 
male and female. 

Among the seaweeds the algae are perhaps the best 
types of bisexual plants ; they reproduce in a simple 
fashion. The cell divides into a number of equal units 
or spores; these when set free are mobile for a while, 
but eventually come to rest and develop to the natural 
size. Thus the simplest form of algae divides into a 
number of equal individual units or spores. The next 
step to a more complex development is seen in the 
division of the parent's cell into smaller spores ; these, 
however, show no difference in history. They settle 
down and develop just like their more richly endowed 
parents. In certain algae the unit of smaller size first 
occurs, but still these are able to develop independ- 
ently. In the higher species both large and small re- 
productive cells are developed. In the larger ones each 
cell alone separates into another cell; and so sometimes 
may the smaller forms. But the smaller forms also 
unite in pairs, and then start a new plant from the 
capital thus attained. When the smaller cells develop 
by themselves the result in some cases, at least, are 



23O WOMAN AND DISEASE 

weakly plants; although they are partly dependent 
upon union with other cells they are not wholly so. 

A third stage is reached when large cells separate 
and develop each by itself, and then unite with one 
another. Here is shown a very distinct beginning of 
the difference between the male and female organism. 
In another alga the differentiation may be traced to 
two kinds of units, which must unite with one another 
to develop their offspring; but these units arise from 
perfectly distinct sources in the parent plants. In 
volvox globator, a plant which being automobile re- 
sembles an animal, an entire colony of these cells pro- 
duces either male or female elements. This represents the 
beginning of unisexual, many-celled plant organisms ; 
thus by two psychic principles was plant life developed, 
after which the more complex animal life evolved. 

The protozoans, which are the lowest of the various 
groups of the animal kingdom, are the only animal 
species in which the male and female occupy the same 
body; there are also many kinds of protozoans in 
which a number of these simple cells are united to- 
gether so as to form a compound body or organism. 
Reproduction takes place by fusion or by a division 
of the contents of the body. The parents' cell con- 
tracts to produce a transparent cyst, which divides into 
two or more globular masses, each of which attains 
freedom by the bursting of the cyst, and then each 
becomes an individual animal. Among the protozoans 
loose colonies of cells thus occur, and these bridge the 
gulf between unicellular and multicellular animals. In 
the multicellular organisms are found the first indica- 



EARTH S EVOLUTION 231 

tions of the afterwards conspicuous difference between 
body cells and reproductive cells in the animal king- 
dom. From these loose colonies certain units are set 
adrift, and meeting with others more or less like them- 
selves they fuse to form a double cell, virtually an 
ovum, from which by continuous divisions a fresh 
colony is developed. In these transitions there are 
other reproductive cells of slight distinction, but as yet 
obviously no sexual organism. In the lowest inverte- 
brates and the sponges the reproductive elements al- 
most always arise in connection with the middle layer 
(mesodern or mesoblast) of the body. 

In the porifera, the group comprising the sponges, 
and one of the lowest forms of animal life, there are 
found colonies consisting of myriads of cells, among 
which there is considerable division of labor. The 
sponges start their colony by the process of sexual 
reproduction; the sex-cells develop from the middle 
layer of each sponge, as they each have an outer layer, 
a middle layer, and an inner layer of cells ; the ova and 
sperm, whether in the same sponge or in another, 
exhibit very different characteristics. The sperm or 
male germ-cell, instead of growing large and rich in 
reserve material, like the ovule or female germ-cells, 
divides repeatedly into clusters of cells, infinitesimal 
in number, and in so doing form the male germ-cells, 
or spermatozoa. Then the male and female reproduc- 
tive cells unite to form a fertilized ovum. The result 
is the continued division of the fertilized ovum until a 
new sponge is built up. Here, then, are special repro- 
ductive cells quite distinct from those of the body cells. 



232 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

These reproductive cells are markedly contrasted as 
male and female elements. As yet, however, there are 
no sexual organs. 

Various naturalists insist upon the difference between 
the cells of an embryo, which go to form the body, and 
those which are set apart for reproduction ; they have 
also demonstrated the fact that nutrition is one of the 
most important factors in determining the sex. They 
prove this by the quality and quantity of feeding of dif- 
ferent species in the lower forms of life. By good feed- 
ing they have raised the percentage of females from 
fifty-six to ninety-three. Other investigators hint at the 
same result in the human species ; and various observers 
in regard to plants form the same general conclusions, 
good nourishment of mammalian mothers favors the 
production of female offspring; and thus the develop- 
ment of the physical life proves the truth of evolution : 
that in the beginning only the lowest forms could exist, 
because of the existence only of the simplest physical 
bodies, but as the evolution of the physical condition of 
the world progressed, the higher vegetable and animal 
life evolved. The Bible and science teach that after the 
evolution of the lower animals, the Adam-man was 
created ; and another evolution and the Eve-man was 
created to finish work of physical evolution. Natural 
laws have long ago demonstrated the fact that it requires 
a more complex organization to develop physical struc- 
tures than to develop mechanical structures ; therefore 
woman is a higher physical evolution than man, because 
she develops the physical body of their offspring during 
its prenatal life. Many investigators have discovered 



EARTH S EVOLUTION 233 

that the same law is demonstrated in the lower forms of 
life; that it requires protoplasm of higher complexity 
to produce the physical bodies of females than of the 
males. 

In experimenting with tadpoles Mr. Yung says: 
"that as the result of high feeding or nutritious food 
there were ninety-two females to eight males. Mrs. 
Treat's interesting experiments prove that in the bee, 
royal diet and plenty of it develops queens ; and if cater- 
pillars were shut up and starved before entering the 
chrysalis state the resultant butterflies or moths were 
males, while others of the same breed, highly nourished, 
came out females. In all species less complex physical 
condition produces males. The crustaceans when living 
in especially favorable conditions produce only females. 
Where the conditions of existence are less prosperous 
males are produced." 

In 1883 Mr. Dusing proved that abundant nourish- 
ment tends to produce females, while the opposite con- 
dition produces males. Messrs. Geddes and Thomson 
sum up the case thus : " Adverse circumstances, espe- 
cially of nutrition, tend to produce males, the reverse 
conditions favoring females. As to the reproductive 
elements, a highly nourished embryo compared with one 
less favorably conditioned in every probability will tend 
to a female rather than a male development. Fertiliza- 
tion when the ovums are fresh and vigorous will produce 
females." The general conclusion, then, more or less 
clearly grasped by numerous investigations, is that the 
evolution of the physical is an absolute fact, as positive 
as the evolution of the mental and the spiritual. 



234 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

These facts also prove that in the evolution of the 
physical world the male was first created, then the 
female. A union of these two elements, according to 
natural law, produces still more complex forms, or more 
highly developed offspring. 






CHAPTER XXIV 

EVOLUTION OF THE SEXES 1 

Contexts. — Sex determined in the Ovum. — Katabolism and Anabolism. — Psychic 
Differentiation in Sex. — Adam's Will Katabolic. — Eve's Will Anabolic. — The 
Sperm and Ovule Equal Factors in Conception. — The Process of Growth Uni- 
form. — The Duty of the Male and Female in Care of Offspring. — Development 
of Reproductive Organs. — The Katabolic Character of the Male Cell and the 
Anabolic Character of the Female Cell. — Preponderance of Altruism or Egotism. 
— Sexual Selection and Beauty. — Abnormal Sexualism. — Nutrition and Katabo- 
lism. — Individual Sexes in Plants. — The Female Sex the Highest in Evolution. 

Each physical body originates from the union of two 
individual sex-cells, each of which is composed of body 
cells and reproductive cells. When conception occurs 
there is not only a physical union but a psychic union of 
the two sex-cells. The predominating physical strength 
of one of the germ-cells determines the sex, although it 
is sometimes the physically weaker parent that supplies 
the physically healthier germ-cell. The higher psychic 
principle of the other parent germ-cell then takes pos- 
session of the nucleolus in which the central nervous 
system begins to develop, and through which its psychic 
or soul life is evolved. The lower psychic principle 
which forms the sympathetic nervous system within the 
nucleus develops in the physical or animal body. 

Later in the development of the offspring either its 
psychic or physical character may be changed by the 
will of either parent; after the birth of the child 

Quotations from the works of the following authors: " Evolution of Sex," by 
Geddes and Thomson; "Darwinism," by Wallace; "Evolution," by Le Conte; 
"Anthropology," by Taylor; and from other anthropologists. Also quotations 
from the recorded reports of numerous experimenters, such as Mr. Van Beneden, 
Mrs. Treat, Mr. Yung, Mr. Geotte, Mr. Dusing and Mr. Maupas. 



236 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

it begins to develop its own individual character, and 
it may decrease or increase its inherited tendencies from 
either parent; therefore each individual from youth to 
old age has the power of developing its own character, 
regardless of inheritance or environment. 

Geddes and Thomson, in their work on " The Evolu- 
tion of the Sex.'' state that there are two kinds of proto- 
plasmic tendencies, termed katabolic, or destructive, and 
anabolic, or conservative ; that the destructive tenden- 
cies necessarily belong to the male sex, while the con- 
servative tendencies necessarily belong to the female sex. 

If "katabolism and anabolism are two opposite con- 
ditions of living protoplasm," then its development 
must be controlled by the individual life principle 
which appropriates it ; therefor, " katabolic processes 
are represented as degenerative protoplasm and the 
anabolic processes are represented as conservative and 
evolving protoplasm." Then protoplasm being dimor- 
phous, that is existing under two distinct conditions, 
when appropriated by an individual organism, it be- 
comes either katabolic or anabolic, according to the 
character of the individual; therefore anabolism means 
evolution; katabolism means degeneracy. 

The psychical differentiation manifested in humanity 
bv the male's egoism, or selfishness, and the female's 
altruism, or care for other individuals outside of self is 
recorded in the early history of the first man and 
woman. Had they both learned wisdom sufficient to 
have developed altruistic character, they and their de- 
scendants would have evolved into a normal altruistic 
race. But instead, the first man developed katabolic. 



EVOLUTION OF THE SEXES 237 

or destructive tendencies which he had inherited from 
his animal ancestors, while the woman who had evolved 
into higher conditions through sympathy, degenerated 
to the level of her husband. Thus these living souls 
became subject to their physical bodies; their physical 
and mental degeneracy became as injurious to one sex 
as to the other. Yet the human family has always 
possessed wisdom sufficient to teach them that any 
undue attention to the lower functions of animal life 
are hindrances to the higher spiritual developments. 

One of the natural laws of the physical world is that 
each animal has the power to evolve into the habits of 
higher animals, and that a higher animal acquiring 
the habits of a lower animal becomes a degenerate. 
The first human parents were certainly created free, to 
evolve or to degenerate. Yet by the exercise of his 
own free will Adam choose to develop the katabolic 
spirit, because he wished to rule and bring into sub- 
jection every other living creature. This tyrannical 
and egotistic spirit has been bequeathed by father to son 
all through the ages. Such inherited tendencies were 
stored away in the reproductive cells, and these abnor- 
mal influences brought to bear upon generations that 
followed. As a free individual and by her own free 
will, Eve developed an anabolic or altruistic spirit 
tow r ards other living creatures. Such tendencies have 
been transmitted from mother to daughter through the 
ages. 

Admitting that each possesses these tendencies, there 
is equally as strong proof that each sex had and still 
has the privilege of acquiring either of these habits ; 



238 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

as now each has the power to correct evil habits in 
less time than they have been acquired, as in this age 
humanity possesses more wisdom than was possessed in 
past ages. Had the first human parents desired wis- 
dom and acquired it from the Source of all wisdom, 
evil knowledge would no doubt never have degraded 
the human family. " It is only within the last fifty 
years that the fundamental facts of the union of the 
sex-cells have been observed and that the nuclear 
union occurs equally. The Society of Animalculists 
ascribes to the male elements all the credit of develop- 
ment of the ovule, after conception occurs." Modern 
investigation of conception has discovered that the 
sperm supplies one-half and the ovule the other half 
of the embryo ; that conception is the union of the two 
sexually differentiated cells. One parent transmits the 
physical properties to the offspring, while the other 
transmits the psychical character. 

The nucleus is the essential element both in con- 
ception and in physical inheritance. The same process 
occurs in plants as in animals ; namely, that the nucleus 
is the important part in physical inheritance ; that the 
union of the two individual nuclei is essential ; that the 
protoplasm of the cell shares in the process ; also that 
there is a special kind of protoplasm, termed the archo- 
plasm, which literally moves the nuclear elements ; the 
movements of these elements are wholly the result of 
the contraction of the attached fibrillar of the two indi- 
vidual nuclei, the resultant action of the archoplasmic 
sphere being the definite arrangement of the physical 
bodv. There is still a higher and more important 



EVOLUTION OF THE SEXES 239 

centre within the embryonic cell termed the nucleolus, 
which contains the psychic germ of the individual soul 
of the future organism which is to exist for a time 
upon this planet, after w T hich the psychical body will 
exist without a physical body, or at least without an 
animal body. The nucleolus contains the more com- 
plex protoplasm, as it posesses the psychic of soul life 
derived from the other parent cell ; from the nucleolus 
develops the higher nerve centres, through which it de- 
velops its future intelligence. 

According to Mr. Van Beneden an ovule containing 
in its nucleus one chromatin ' element, was fertilized by 
a sperm also with one chromatin element. Mr. Carnoy 
described the normal ovule as containing two chrom- 
atin elements, and as being fertilized by a sperm con- 
taining also two chromatin elements. More recently, 
however, Mr. Boveri has shown that both are right, 
nay more, that an ovule with one chromatin element 
seems always to unite with a sperm with only one such 
element, while an ovule with two chromatin elements 
unites with a sperm likewise with two. With the en- 
trance of the sperm the ovule undergoes a simulta- 
neous change, which excludes other spermatozoa. As it 
is only the head or nuclear portion of the sperm that 
is of real importance in the process of conception, the 
nutritive tail simply dissolves away after the fusion of 
the male and female nuclei and their physical union is 
quite complete. This new embryonic cell is found to 
be not only a very complex structure, but it has a dis- 

1 Chromatin tissue, according to this author, is that which is capable of holding 
its color when brought in contact with any of the various staining fluids used by 
microscopists. 



24O WOMAN AND DISEASE 

tinct individual life all its own. " Lying in a nest or 
chamber within the nucleus is the nucleolus, — the 
psychic germ which evolves the central nervous system. 
The nucleolus is separated from the nucleus by a more 
or less distinct membrane ; which membrane disappears 
as the activity of the embryo continues." 

In order to understand the analogy of the physical 
origin of the two human sexes one must begin with 
their cell development in the human embryo. In the 
beginning of fetal life the reproductive cells begin devel- 
oping in the same location in both sexes. Their com- 
mon origin is in the Wolffian bodies, situated in the 
middle of the back. They exist only as Wolffian bodies 
in early fetal life; afterwards they are separated into 
different organs and are known by different names. 
The Wolffian bodies are formed about the third week 
of embryonic life by a mass of cells which soon give 
rise to a hollow organ situated on each side of the primi- 
tive vertebra. These cells develop hollow tubes, which 
extend from below the heart to the bladder; the lower 
end of these tubes opens into the bladder. By the 
development of the permanent kidneys the greater part 
of the Wolffian bodies disappear; the rest take part 
in the formation of the reproductive cells, which later 
develop into reproductive organs. The pelvic organs of 
both sexes are developed from the parts of the Wolffian 
bodies called the genital glands and genital ducts. The 
former develop into ovaries or testicles; the latter de- 
velop into the genital canals. The lower part of the 
genital ducts unite with the ducts of the Wolffian bodies 
to form the genital cords ; as these cords approach each 




The origin of the Pelvic Organs. 



Plate XXXVII. 



EVOLUTION OF THE SEXES 241 

other they unite to form the cavities of the sexual organs. 

The external organs of generation, like the internal 
ones, pass through a stage in which there is no percep- 
tible distinction of sex. In the very early embryonic 
life there is but one external opening for the pelvic 
organs ; this is termed the cloaca. About the second 
month a transverse division of the perineum begins to 
take place and divides the cloaca into a rectal opening 
posteriorly, and the vaginal and urethral opening ante- 
riorly to the perineum. In front a tubercle or small 
prominence is formed ; this is soon surrounded by two 
folds of skin, the genital folds. The tubercle develops 
into the penis of the male or the clitoris of the female. 
The urino-genital canals are the excretory ducts in both 
male and female. In the female the genital fold forms 
the labia majora and the genital furrow forms the labia 
minora; the genital furrow remaining open except 
where the posterior part unites with the perineum. 
This occurs between the third and fourth months. In 
the male the genital tubercle develops into a penis. 
The genital furrow closes and forms a canal, the 
urethra, and the spongy portion of the penis. The 
urino-genital canal becomes elongated and forms the 
urethra. The genital folds unite in the middle line 
and form the scrotum, while the genital furrows are 
closed to form the spongy portion surrounding the 
urethal canal. 

If conception is an equal union of two protoplasmic 
sex-cells, the sperm and the ovule, to produce a new 
physical body, then in the origin of a new psychic in- 
dividual there is an equal union of the vital principles 



242 MAN an: !■: S E AS I 

of the two srirs to produce an independent life to 
occupy the forthcoming organism. This unity of pro- 
cess which occurs in the development of human life 
also occurs in all animals and all plants. The fusion 
of the two individual sex-cells always takes place when 
conception occurs. 

In the evolution of the sexes in both vegetable and 
animal life, there is invariably given an equal division 
of labor, not only of the cells but of the organisms; 
therefore, the plrysical bodies are constructed accord- 
ingly. Equal division of the labor was certainly in- 
tended from the beginning. Ages have Trrivea 
the two sexes have so far accomplished their labors. 
During the development of theii offspring the male 
should rare for ana or::e:: :ne female during her 
periods of gestation and lactation, while she protects 
and cares for their offspring. 

Although egoism and altruism are traceable down to 
the simplest forms of life, neither becomes a predomi- 
nating quality of either sex until after the nervous 
system has become complexly developed in the higher 
animals; although egotistic natures even in the lowest 
organisms are distinctly referable to the gratification of 
selfish instincts as ungovernable appetites or the de- 
struction of others in self-defence, these abnormal 
habits bring about a still more degraded condition 
when employed in the destruction of others to gratify 
the vilest passions. Senual desires, which invariably 
defraud others in order to gratify self, belong to a per- 
verted animal instinct and are not under the control 
of a normal will ; passion weakens the will and controls 
the individual. 



EVOLUTION OF THE SEXES 243 

According to Gedcles and Thomson, 1 "the exis- 
tence of male and female is simply the expression of 
a more developed oscillation between katabolism and 
anabolism, or between destructive and constructive 
processes." Yet deficient or unhealthy food, high tem- 
perature, deficient light, moisture and other abnormal 
conditions, which give preponderance of waste over 
repair, induce katabolic or destructive habits of body 
and mind, which may result in a diseased condition of 
either sex, while abundant nutrition, light, air, and other 
normal conditions favor constructive processes and 
produce anabolic or conservative habits in either sex. 

If influences favoring katabolism tend to the produc- 
tion of male destructiveness, and anabolic conditions 
favor female conservativeness, then we are strength- 
ened in concluding that katabolism is the outcome of 
predominant egoism of the objective or animal nature, 
and anabolism is equally as emphatic a result of the 
altruistic or spiritual nature. Science teaches that from 
the simplest forms of life to the most complex, there 
has been an evolutionary process, and it also equally 
proves that a retrograde change occurred as soon as 
higher species degenerated into the habits of lower ones. 

According to Mr. Darwin males are more destructive 
and more emotional because ancestral forms happened 
to become so in a slight degree. There are others who 
insist that males are stronger and more emotional 
simply because they are males ; and still there are others 
who believe that such animal preponderances are due to 

Quotations from the works of Geddes and Thomson, also from many other 
thorough investigators of the conditions of the sexes. 



244 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

that which an individual inherits or acquires ; that 
either sex can become egotistic or altruistic, and that 
even' human being is born with more or less power of 
selection, yet in the lower animals both retrograde and 
advancing changes are due to inherited tendencies and 
circumstances until they have advanced in intelligence 
sufficiently to control these conditions. Even in each 
living cell the physical change or metabolism is either 
destructive or constructive. Metabolism is a natural 
power possessed by all living cells by which they trans- 
form undifferentiated protoplasm into katabolic or ana- 
bolic powers, according as the will of the individual 
determines to be an egotist or an altruist. Even- 
human being acquires power sufficient to overcome 
inherited tendencies as well as acquired habits, whether 
they are mental or physical ; yet when man becomes a 
degenerate animal he becomes aggressive and tyran- 
nical; when woman become submissive to his tyranny 
she becomes a subjective animal. 

If as stated by some authorities combative energy 
and sexual beaut}' arise from male katabolism or egoism 
through a series of species, then sexual degeneration 
may be due to the same cause. According to Mr. 
Danvin, sexual selection for "love's" sake has acceler- 
ated the male into gay coloring among the lower forms 
of life ; and according to the views of Mr. Wallace, for 
safety's sake in brooding their young, female birds and 
butterflies, become conspiciously plain in color. 

Geddes and Thomson say: "Beauty and combative 
energy arise with male katabolism, and are due to retro- 
grade changes, in a literal sense, animals put on beauty- 



EVOLUTION OF THE SEXES 245 

for ashes, that excess of sexual growth means early 
death both of the physical and the intellectual." If 
pigments are the result of waste products and bright 
colorings, or conspicuous pigments are the result of ex- 
cessive sexual growth, then sexual preponderance must 
interfere with normal physical and psychical develop- 
ment. 

'The bright coloring in the lower forms of life, as 
the coloring of the skin in male fishes at the spawning 
season, seem pathological rather than normal. The 
male stickle-back builds its nest among the weeds, and 
weaves the material together by mucous threads se- 
creted from the kidneys. His reproductive organs or 
testes become very large at the breeding season, and 
push in an abnormal way upon the kidneys. This 
encroachment produces a pathological condition of the 
kidneys, and the result is the formation of a mucous secre- 
tion somewhat similar to what occurs in renal disease in 
higher forms. To free himself from the irritant pressure 
of this secretion he rubs himself against external objects, 
most conveniently upon the nest. This curious weaving 
is not due to the intelligence of this fish in constructing 
its nest, but is merely a selfish consideration, the result 
of a retrograde metamorphism. 

" In some species the male expends almost his entire 
force in decorating himself to attract the female. In 
other species the female decorates herself to attract 
the male." In either, the vainer of the two becomes 
the weaker mentally ; as more often the sex which cares 
less for physical preponderances or decoration cares 
more for the development of the intellect. 



246 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

Eagerness to display supposed physical charms to 
attract and subdue the opposite sex is an acquired 
abnormal condition in both sexes, and of mere animal 
origin. Either species or sex when normal mentally 
and physically do not develop conspicuously any part of 
the body. The absence of such abnormal physical con- 
ditions is an indication of a high grade of intelligence. 

Mr. Darwin discovered that ornamental decoration 
when carried to extremes in the lower species was 
acquired at great expense, and that the injury to the 
constitution was deep and lasting. It has also been 
discovered that if either male or female is placed in 
subjection to the opposite sex the subject will in time 
allure the objective tyrant to ruin by conspicuous phys- 
ical attraction, and in turn the one allured will destroy 
the physical preponderance by which it was attracted. 
Thus one evil invariably destroys another evil. Among 
the lower species it is more often the males that deco- 
rate and develop their physical charms to attract the 
superior intelligent females. 

In his "Descent of Man" Mr. Darwin says: "The 
male display their charms with elaborate care and to 
the best effect; this is done in the presence of the 
female, and as the females of the lower species select 
their partners, it should be noted in passing that ac- 
cording to this reasoning the female of the human 
species would also be likely to exercise her will power 
in the selection of a mate." Mr. Darwin also states 
" that evidences are indeed at hand going to prove that 
until a comparatively recent time in the history of 
the human race women controlled to some extent the 



EVOLUTION OF THE SEXES 247 

sexual relations ; that during the primitive ages of 
human existence the position of woman was much 
higher than was that occupied by man ; and during the 
earlier ages, and under more natural conditions, women 
selected their mates; and among the human species as 
among the lower orders, it became necessary for the male 
to please the female if he would win her favor. Such 
a social condition will again occur, being brought about 
by man's mental and physical degeneracy, due to his 
excesses, which he considers himself at liberty to indulge 
in. Even in the female brain of the lower animals, 
there has developed certain peculiarities in the cells by 
which she is enabled to exercise functions requiring a 
considerable degree of intelligence ; a degree of intelli- 
gence far in advance of that manifested by males." 
Nevertheless, any physical tendencies when carried to 
excess produce abnormal conditions; as an illustration, 
the increased temperature of the body to a certain limit, 
quickens the development of the physical life, favor- 
ing nutrition and evolution, rather than a retrograde 
change; but beyond the limit of comfortable warmth, 
so variable for different animals, an increased tempera- 
ture may induce a feverish habit of body which has- 
tens abnormal reproduction or disintegration. In other 
words, warmth in some cases favors anabolism, in others 
katabolism. In all animal life sufficient food is associ- 
ated with the evolving process of the body and mind, 
but excess or insufficient nutrition brings about ab- 
normal preponderance of the lower instincts. 

Mr. Maupas gives a vivid statement of the stimulus 
to reproduction by a sudden check to nutrition. The 



;_: WOMAN AND DISEASE 

check to nutrition, especially in the form of sudden 
scarcity of food, will favor abnormal sexual reproduc- 
tion. In all animal species abnormal reproduction pro- 
duces a destructive or katabolic condition, and these 
abnormal conditions tend to excite the reproductive 
cells to still lower abnormal action, causing excessive 
congestion of the sexual organs and the occurrence of 
early destructive metamorpho-i- As normal anabolism 
represents a conservative condition of an individual, 
then each individual is capable of evolving or retro- 
grading, living a destructive or a conservative life, over- 
coming katabolic tendencies or developing anabolic 
reditu lies. 

As reproductive cells as well as body cells are suscep- 
tible to external and internal influences, inherited and 
acquired, both in the male and female, every influence 
which tends to produce katabolism or egoism also 
tends to a retrograde change, or degeneracy, while 
every influence which tends to produce anabolism or 
altruism tends toward a normal growth or evolution. 
Hereditary tendency may be impressed upon an indi- 
iiual organism by either parent, or it may be acquired 
in the course of later development ; that is, it may be 
either inherited or acquired. The conspicuous color- 
ing of the lower animals is due to either inherited or 
acquired origin, as a change to a new diet or to a new 
condition is followed by modifications arising either 
within or without; also either an engorgement or an 
in sufficient supply of nutrition produces a katabolic 
condition of the protoplasm which supplies the body 
cells ?,nd the reproductive cella 



EVOLUTION OF THE SEXES 249 

Statistics prove that poverty tends to excite abnor- 
mal sexual desires ; that starvation brings about an 
unhealthy reproductive crisis, termed katabolism or 
degeneracy: that abnormal psychical as well as phys- 
ical conditions occur in either sex from the same cause; 
that anabolic or conservative character is conducive of 
normal development of the body and mind in either 
sex, and that excessive sexual reproduction of family 
or race will bring about a destructive katabolic crisis. 
Normal nutrition and normal reproduction occur ac- 
cording to natural laws of evolution, and are merely 
primary expressions and characteristics of physical 
bodies. The primary psychical manifestations in hu- 
manity occur when normal altruism or care for other 
individuals outside of self is developed. Had the earli- 
est human parents first learned wisdom, they and their 
descendants would have developed into a normal race. 
But instead they first acquired the habit of their animal 
ancestors, and the result has been that psychical bodies 
have become subject to physical bodies. 



CHAPTER XXV 

RESULTANT EVILS OF SEXUAL EXCESS ; 

Contents. — Over-population. — Checks to Over-population. — Control of Concep- 
tion. — Consequences of Sexuality Cumulative. — Self-control the Organic Basis 
of Civilized Races. — Sexual Inebriety a Crime. — Sexualism entailed upon 
Children. — Victimized Wives. — Purity equally Obligatory upon Men and 
Women. — Prostitution within the Marriage Relation. — Why Woman is not 
Free in this Relation. — The Necessity for Woman's protecting Herself against 
Lust. 

There should be greater efforts to produce quality 
than number in each human family. Large families 
should be regarded in the same light as drunkenness or 
any other excess. The prudential check to population 
ought to be considered as equally natural as check to 
poverty and premature mortality. 

Mr. Herbert Spencer urges the importance of pres- 
sure of population as an incentive to progress, and con- 
cludes that man's future evolution must continue mainly 
in the direction of psychical development. He therefore 
predicts that with increase of individuality and superior 
mentality there will be a diminution of fertility. 

John Stuart Mill said surely it is better to have thirty- 
live millions of human beings leading useful and intelli- 
gent lives rather than forty millions struggling for bare 
subsistence. 

These observers recognize that over-population is one 
of the most fruitful sources of pauperism, ignorance, 
crime and disease. To counteract this there are checks, 

1 Quotations from " The Evolution of Sex," by Geddes and Thomson: also from 
Darwin, Wallace, Le Conte, Spencer, John Stuart Mill, B. O. Flower, Eliza Burt 
Gamble and other superior writers. 



RESULTANT EVILS OF SEXUAL EXCESS 25 1 

positive or life-destroying on the one hand, prudential 
or conception-preventing on the other. The positive or 
life-destroying checks comprehend the premature death 
of children and adults by disease, starvation, and infan- 
ticide. These abnormal checks fortunately are being 
reduced by the progress of intelligence ; there are still 
other preventions of excessive propagation, in absti- 
nence from marriage, or by prudence after marriage. 
But the first (prolonged abstinence from marriage, as 
advocated by Malthus) is productive of many diseases 
and of much sexual vice ; while prudence after mar- 
riage, which the new Malthusian more distinctly means 
attention to methods which will secure that sexual 
intercourse shall not be followed by fertilization or 
conception. As men and women progress in intelli- 
gence they recognize the fact that sexual intercourse 
should occur only when normal children are desired. 

The sentimental idea that it is a sin to control concep- 
tion, as it is interfering with nature, is an absurdity 
which has been taught as divine and human- commands. 
These human law-makers insist that whatever is nature, 
is right ; and therefore when the animal nature predomi- 
nates it is the Lord's will. Then there are a class of 
physicians who depend upon numerous conceptions and 
confinement cases to insure their financial support. 

The absurd prejudices against intelligently controlling 
the animal nature and conception is gradually dying 
out. Humanity is learning that frequent child-bearing, 
which is now so common, especially among those who 
can least afford its physical, mental or financial expense, 
should be avoided, and that it is cruelly exhaustive both 



252 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

to mothers and children. Even a parson has been found 
who told his flock to have done with the blasphemous 
whining which constantly tries to look at a motherless 
crowd of puny infants as a dispensation of mysterious 
providence. 

To realize the terrible consequences of sexual intem- 
perance is the issue of the day, as well as the necessity 
for ethical rather than mechanical prudence after mar- 
riage ; and that virtue must be recognized to be as bind- 
ing on husband and wife as chastity on the unmarried. 
When considering the inevitable consequences of sexu- 
ality becoming cumulative by inheritance, one cannot 
help recognizing the fact that married people are falling 
towards the level of the male and female prostitutes who 
frequent houses of assignation. Civilized people should 
protest against the dictum of false teachers who preach 
indulgence rather than restraint; they should protest 
against regarding artificial means of preventing concep- 
tion as an adequate solution of sexual responsibility. 
The solution is absolutely one of virtue and intelligence. 
It is no new or unattained ideal to retain throughout 
married life that self-control must always form the nor- 
mal basis of truly civilized races, although " patriarchs " 
of all ages have taught that sexual indulgence is a phys- 
ical necessity for men, and virtue is only necessary for 
their mothers, sisters, wives and daughters. 

So long as sensualists pose as religious instructors, 
men will continue to become mentally and physically 
diseased from the effects of such teaching, and unintelli- 
gent women will become the wives of such men, and 
eventually become as diseased. These men and women 



RESULTANT EVILS OF SEXUAL EXCESS 253 

will not allow themselves to think or reason concerning 
their degraded condition, but instead continue on into 
old age frivolous and thoughtless of the effects their 
sensuality has had upon their own life and the lives of 
others with whom they have been associated. 

Sexually diseased persons stand in the same position 
as inebriates. Their will-powers are so weakened that 
they do not possess strength or courage to overcome 
their abnormal tendencies; therefore the sensualist 
should be treated as a diseased person. Although 
women have been victims of sensuality they have been 
disciplined either by suffering or by witnessing suffering, 
that has caused the more thoughtful women to abhor 
evil in all its phases. While men are so weak morally 
and women are so weak physically, there must be some 
power possessed by women to prevent an increase of 
sexual diseases and the propagation of diseased children. 

So long as women are unable to control conception 
there will be a continual increase of diseased humanity. 
Every woman has an inherent right to protect her health 
and morals as well as those of her children ; they should 
not allow men to deprive them of their own individual 
rights. All who have any knowledge of the suffering of 
women know that it is absolutely necessary that the wife 
should understand how to control conception ; yet when 
men and women become truly civilized and sufficiently 
Christianized to avoid sensual thoughts or the yielding 
to such desires, there will be no necessity for artificial 
prevention of conception. But at present the majority 
of men and women are too diseased physically and 
morally and not sufficiently developed spiritually to 



254 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

comprehend their terrible situation as slaves to sensu- 
ality. Therefore every thoughtful wife will be in posses- 
sion of some harmless means of controlling conception, 
and by means of better health and clearer intellect will 
comprehend the laws of her being, and will soon cease 
to allow her physical health and mental ability to be 
sacrificed to sensual habits, which are destroying men 
morally and mentall}-, even more rapidly than such dis- 
eases are destroying women physically; yet the diseased 
conditions of both sexes are appalling; all parents should 
have a knowledge of the cause and the effect of such 
diseases upon themselves and their children. 

Men and women should learn the anatomy of their 
bodies and the laws of health regarding the care of the 
body, by which they can prevent disease, both acquired 
and inherited, and woman should also know how to 
control conception. Every- intelligent mother knows 
that in order to develop healthy children she should 
desire, as well as prepare, for her child's life. At least 
as much care should be given to human conception as 
to that of dogs, cattle, and horses. All fine stock-breed- 
ers know that they must have knowledge and power to 
control conception, in order to produce thorough-bred 
stock ; they also know that either frequent or promis- 
cuous breeding produces inferior offspring. 

Diseased or immoral parents should not allow con- 
ception to occur, for the fixed law of inheritance has 
decreed that the sins and diseases of parents will be 
inherited by their children. If the practice of concep- 
tion occurring in diseased families is continued through 
successive generations, the most unfavorable physical. 



RESULTANT EVILS OF SEXUAL EXCESS 255 

mental and moral results will be produced in their 
children. A scientific writer recently said: " The crim- 
inal population should not be allowed to propagate; 
castration of criminals is the duty of society." If this 
is not done women should be wise enough to control 
conception, even if they are yet too weak physically and 
mentally to prevent sexual intercourse, when concep- 
tion is not desired and should not occur. 

The greater number of the wives in existence today 
are compelled to submit to sexual intercourse when it 
is not only repulsive but positively injurious and dan- 
gerous. Should not women have the right to protect 
their own health ? Can men make and enforce laws 
to prohibit women from protecting themselves and 
children from injustice and outrages which deprive them 
of health and life ? Such suffering exists in every 
social condition of life where man rules by assuming 
to be the head of the family. Terrible indeed are the 
sufferings of women caused by the sensuality of their 
husbands and their own suspense and dread of preg- 
nancy when such should not occur. 

Men have made laws to compel women to submit to 
such outrages ; they have also made laws to prevent 
women gaining knowledge sufficient to control concep- 
tion. When women can control their pregnancies they 
will not only have much better health but they will 
know if their husbands' health is sufficient to aid in 
producing normal children. 

" For generations the church and society have tacitly 
sanctioned prostitution ' when veiled by the respecta- 

1 Prostitution within the Marriage Bond, by Mr. B. O. Flower, in the Arena of 
June, 1805. This valuable article should be read by every woman. 



256 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

bility accorded by the marriage ceremony, until we 
have fallen so low that men have come to imagine 
they can indulge in licentiousness and debauchery 
from which the instincts of the lower animals recoil, 
and at the same time, or later, bring children into the 
world who will not be cursed with that which is worse 
than leprosy or cancer. It is no uncommon thing for 
a physician to advise a young man who has literally 
burned away the finer sensibilities of his soul and 
wrecked his nervous system through sexual indul- 
gences, to marry some healthy young girl in order to 
save himself from insanity. Any objection which may 
be raised is flippantly met by that popular but infamous 
apology for lust which carries with it a brutally frank 
confession of society's degradation, that the young man 
has merely been ' sowing his wild oats ' ; and in all 
probability we shall be gravely informed that he will 
make all the better husband for so doing. 

" No thought is given to the maiden who is to be 
polluted by this union with a man who has wallowed 
in the mire of sensuality until his imagination is filled 
with low and vile images, his brain has lost its virility, 
and his system has become weakened and permeated 
with disease. Nor does conventional society, which is 
so particular about form, so punctilious in regard to the 
outside of the cup, consider the crime against women 
or the evil which posterity may receive from encour- 
aging the generation of life from a fountain so impure 
and loathsome. 

" For ages men regarded women as slaves, whose 
duty it was to perform menial tasks, wait upon them, 



RESULTANT EVILS OF SEXUAL EXCESS 257 

and be the instruments of their sensual gratification. 
Later, among the wealthier classes, woman became 
more or less a doll or petted child, who for sweet- 
meats, flattery, and fine presents, was expected to give 
her body to her master. Still later, she was supposed 
to come into much higher and truer relations to man; 
but, unfortunately, this was more largely theoretical 
than actual. And at the present time, in order to con- 
sider one of the chief factors in the immorality of today, 
we-must frankly face the problem of prostitution within 
the marriage relation. 

" The taproot of immorality today is found in prosti- 
tution within the marriage relation, which for centuries 
has produced children of lust, and these children in 
turn have brought forth their kind, until the moral 
fabric is weakened throughout civilization. And were 
it not for the persistent voice of the divine in the 
human brain and the counteracting influence of ex- 
alted religious sentiments, our degradation would have 
eclipsed that which marked the decline of pagan 
Rome. Girls are sorely tempted through the exigen- 
cies of life at the present time; and in many cases 
where they fall, their ruin is practically compulsory — 
an alternative of yielding to the employer's unholy 
demands or of losing the chance to earn a livelihood; 
hence, though no personal violence may have marked 
the crime, it is essentially rape. But in many cases the 
victims of man's sensual passion might have success- 
fully resisted, had it not been for the fact that they 
were essentially children of lust, and had inherited the 
violent and ungovernable passions of their fathers, 



: : : WOMAN AND DISEASE 

which in their case, when aroused, rendered them as 
powerless to resist the cunning, determined advances 
:: rheir polluters as, perhaps, the young lust-begotten 
victims of an earlier generation had been to repel the 
wiles laid for them by the fathers of these poor girls. 

"A lady who is president of the Woman's Christian 
Temperance Union writes : * I am intensely interested 
in your article, Wellsprings and Feeders of Immorality. 
Pardon me, but I think you give too little prominence 
to lust and prostitution within marriage. Here is the 
very centre of the whole question. You may well say 
that the future of civilization hangs on this point. 
Prostitution outside of marriage, and the unspeakable 
evils resulting therefrom, are as a drop to the unfath- 
omable, immeasurable c :ean af evils that spring directly 
from the marriage relation, or, rather, the ceaseless in- 

Igence of lust within that relation. And this is true 
among better ;lasses as among the rude and uncul- 
tured. For many years as organizer and lecturer for 
the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, I have 
been brought into the most familiar relations with 
hundreds of families outside as well as inside of the 
White Ribbon Army. Being a mother and grand- 
r_:::hcr z'r.t'st ':.:■.' ~e : : r :: me. .:ns:.uv.: ::"£::e:i:es 
from young wives and mothers that have filled me 
with deepest pity, and at the same time with unquench- 
:.':*e indignation. It is by no means the exception, but 
rather the rule, that during pregnancy the wife must 
yield to the demand of the husband's lust, not occa- 
5 [ : nally but constantly, as often as there are nights in 
the month ; and not infrequently must she give herself 



RESULTANT EVILS OF SEXUAL EXCESS 



259 



up to this awful harlotry before her baby is two weeks 
old. Under these circumstances how can boys and 
girls ever be born with other than the most pronounced 
tendencies toward lust and prostitution. And in my 
wide experience all over the country, I find these hus- 
bands are reputable men in business circles, very often 
in church circles as well. And they do not fail to tell 
their wives that Paul hath commanded the wife to 
obedience ; that she hath not power over her own body, 
but the husband; that they defraud not one another, 
that they come together again that Satan tempt them 
not for their incontinency. This from the church, 
while the civil law has always given great weight to 
the husbands marital rights.' 

" Another lady public speaker of national prominence 
said to me a few months ago: ' Prostitution without the 
marriage bond is insignificant compared to the essen- 
tial prostitution which is bearing most deadly fruit in 
wedlock. I speak from knowledge, for women are my 
confidantes, and the tales they tell wring my heart and 
sometimes seem past belief. The common prostitute,' 
she added, 'is far freer than the wife who is nightly 
the victim of the unholy passion of her master, w r ho 
frequently further inflames his brain by imbibing 
stimulants.' 

" Nor are women alone in their conclusion on this 
point. Here are the words of a prominent manufac- 
turer in Mississippi, a gentleman in the flower of vigor- 
ous manhood. He says: 'The causes you enumerate 
as the chief feeders of prostitution are in my estima- 
tion the correct ones ; and the first one you mention, in 



260 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

my judgment far overshadows all the others. For the 
children already born, all that can be done is to educate 
and restrict. It is useless for us to argue with a man 
that he has committed an actual evil by purchasing the 
gratification of his passion from a girl outside of the 
marriage bond, if in the same breath we argue that, if 
instead of paying money, he had paid the price of 
marriage, he would have been not only guiltless, but 
an exceedingly virtuous man. 1 

"*A neighbor of mine.' wrote a correspondent, 'has 
married his third wife this week. The others were 
healthy girls when he married them, but his last wife, 
when on her death-bed related the story of her married 
misery to my wife ; a tale too horrible and sickening to 
repeat. She said she was glad she was about to die, 
as she had felt many times that she would lose her 
mind. Do you know,' she exclaimed to my wife, 
'people say our asylums are full of farmer's wives, 
owing to the monotony of the farm life. It is monoto- 
nous, I confess, but I believe the cause lies more in the 
abuse, often ignorant abuse, of the wives by the hus- 
bands.' The man of whom I write wildly bemoaned 
his fate at the funeral of each of his wives. But from 
w T hat his second wife said on her death-bed I do not 
doubt that he killed them in exercising what he con- 
sidered his marital rights. He is a prominent church 
member, and considers himself a highly moral man. 

" So wrote this correspondent, giving a hint of the 
tragedies which are being enacted even' day through- 
out that portion of the world we boastingly call civi- 
lized. A slothful conservatism seeks to impress woman 



RESULTANT EVILS OF SEXUAL EXCESS 26l 

with the idea that she is free, and that to be coddled 
or flattered in slavery is for her an ideal and ultimate 
condition. It even gravely informs her that she is the 
real ruler; and, sad to relate, this calumny is not infre- 
quently parroted by women who instead of learning to 
think independently have been content for ages to take 
their ideas unquestioningly from their clergymen, their 
fathers, brothers, and husbands. It does not occur to 
these echoes that, if woman rules, she has sealed her 
hopeless degradation by the passing of such immoral 
laws as the age-of-consent statutes, or that she has 
championed injustice in the statutes which relate to 
marriage and which practically makes her the depend- 
ent, and, in a measure, the slave of her husband. 
Happily the echoes among women are rapidly giving 
place to independent thinkers, who appreciate the 
grave responsibilities woman owes to posterity, no less 
than to her sex ; and in this recognition lies, to a great 
degree, the promise of the future. 

" No more unblushing falsehood has ever been made 
current by conventionalism than that woman is free in 
the marriage relation. Society clings most tenaciously 
to ancient ideas and customs, and is ever ready to 
cast discredit upon the outraged wife who braves the 
dicta of conservatism, even for the protection of pos- 
terity, from disease and lust-cursed offspring. Law also 
places her at a disadvantage, in that the plea of sexual 
excess is not regarded as a crime by the courts, since 
the laws do not recognize the right of the wife to her 
body. 

" Furthermore, this frightful condition of affairs, with 



262 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

the lowering of the vitality of motherhood, is by no 
means the only major evil incident to prostitution 
within the marriage relation. The race is suffering 
from the moral enervation which follows as an inevi- 
table consequence of the degradation of the sacred func- 
tion of motherhood. Women have for ages been taught 
obedience to their husbands, and this command has 
been supplemented by the injunction to be fruitful and 
multiply. Too often the wife has found herself in the 
embrace of a human gorilla, swayed by animal passion, 
when she had expected to find a kingly-souled man, 
whose fine nature would recognize her rights. 

"And yet generations come and go, and the pulpit, 
platform, and press remain silent. The subject has so 
long been tabooed that a mawkish sentiment of pru- 
dery, essentially vicious because it is the stronghold of 
immorality, is shocked whenever sound morality is 
advocated or the mantle robing the leprosy of society 
is lifted. The protest made by conventionalism against 
boldly facing and discussing the question of morality 
within the marriage bond, is in itself a humiliating con- 
fession of conventionalism's own sense of guilt. Yet 
it is only by such discussion and the persistent agita- 
tion of the demand that women be accorded rights she 
has never possessed that we may hope to so change 
moral conditions that love, not lust, shall stamp poster- 
ity and light the brow of the civilization of tomorrow. 
Generation after generation for many weary ages has 
been reared and entered the marriage state practically 
ignorant of the true functions of the sexual nature, the 
essentially holy obligations of parentage, the right of 



RESULTANT EVILS OF SEXUAL EXCESS 263 

wife and mother, the consideration and care which 
should be bestowed upon the heroic soul who de- 
scends into the valley of death to deliver to society 
another life, and, lastly, the sacred rights of the unborn 
to be well-born. 

" About all these most vital subjects a fatal silence 
has been maintained — at the fireside, in the pulpit, and 
in the educational training of the young. I am con- 
vinced that a very large portion of the misery and 
prostitution now being undergone within the marriage 
relation is due to this widespread ignorance. Igno- 
rance and thoughtlessness are filling prisons and in- 
sane asylums today and dowering the civilization of 
tomorrow with a generation whose moral sensibilities 
are necessarily blunted, and who, through heredity and 
prenatal and postnatal influences, are essentially creat- 
ures of lust rather than strong, clean-souled, clear- 
brained, heaven-aspiring men and women. 

" No woman has any right to part with the absolute 
ownership of her own body, but she has the right to be 
protected against all forms of brute force. No woman 
has any business to marry anything less than a man. 
No woman has any right to marry any man who will 
sow the seeds of hereditary disease in her children. 

"Children should be taught the mystery of their 
being at the parent's knee; and with this knowledge 
the demands of the highest morality, the duties and 
obligations which the most exalted natures appreciate, 
should be impressed upon the opening mind. Igno- 
rance is no protection. 

" The time has come when society must recognize 



264 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

the fact that prostitution, even though sanctioned by the 
church and state in the marriage ceremony, is none 
the less prostitution, and that its fruits are altogether 
debasing. This fact must be burned into the heart of 
our civilization, if the reign of lust is to give place to 
purity. 

" I believe the time will come when civilization will 
recognize the injury inflicted on society by the grave 
infraction of the moral law by which children of lust or 
hate come as a fruit of enforced maternity/' 

It was recently announced that " The Civic Feder- 
ation " purposes to establish a model baby farm in 
Chicago ; that the handling of babies in so-called " baby 
farms " conducted by private persons was almost equiv- 
alent to murder. Although it is a disgrace to any 
civilized nation that its people are so nearly on a level 
with the lower animals that it is necessary to establish 
baby farms ; yet when such conditions do exist not only 
should baby farms be established but also institutions 
or farms for mothers, who are enslaved and hedged in 
by barbed-wire marriage laws, which compel them to 
submit to such inhuman treatment as enforced mater- 
nity. Protective institutions for mothers should be 
established in every state, where wives may escape 
from vicious and sensual husbands, and where igno- 
rance and degradation may be overcome by intelli- 
gences concerning the laws of health ; where mothers 
may learn to control pregnancy, and the requirements 
necessary to bring into existence normal children. In 
these institutions mothers should be taught a kinder- 
garten system which they could put into practical use 



RESULTANT EVILS OF SEXUAL EXCESS 265 

in their homes. In order to have a normal race of 
human beings parents must become physically, morallv 
and mentally healthy, and this would mean no lustful 
marriages, no divorces, no prostitution, and no venereal 
diseases. 



CHAPTEP XXVI 

NORMAL PARENTAGE ' 

Contents. — Normal Marriage. — Control of Sexual Intercourse. — Conditions for 
Parentage. — When Conception may occur.' — Antenatal Influence. — Charac- 
teristics of Parents. — How transmitted. — Care of the Mother during Preg- 
nancy. — Antenatal Conditions Affect the Child. — How to have Beautiful Chil- 
dren. — Normal Antenatal Development. — a. How Conception occurs. — b. 
The Embryotic Cell. — c. The Psychic Centre. — Plates: 34. Development of 
Ovum. — 35. Tenth Day after Conception. — 36. First Development of Spinal 
Column. — 37. Development of Membrane. — 38. Fifth Week. — 39. Second 
Month. — 40. Displacement, Retroversion during Pregnancy. — 41. Displace- 
ment, Retroflexion during Pregnancy. — 42. Third Month of Gestation. — 43. 
Eight Month of Gestation. — 44. Ninth Month of Gestation. — Positions of 
Mother in standing, walking, etc., during Pregnancy. — Care after Confine- 
ment. — The Mother as the Educator of the Child. — The Child-God. — The 
Advantage of being well-born. — Early Education. 

A true marriage can occur but once in each human 
life; as it is a mutual agreement in which there is an 
equal union of virtue, respect, and intelligence, such a 
union considers neither one as inferior nor superior to 
the other; each is willing to assist in carrying the bur- 
dens of this life together, and to concede that each 
shall enjoy social, financial, political and educational 
advantages. Concerning their own individual occupa- 
tion, each shall be capable of controlling independently 
of the other, so far as dictation or fear is concerned; 
and so long as health continues, each shall have the 
privilege of working in the line of his or her own indi- 
vidual talents. Such equality would not necessitate 
severing the union of souls which "God has joined 
together," and when death separates them for a while, 

1 Quotations from many standard authors on the causes of human evolution and 
degeneracy. 



NORMAL PARENTAGE 267 

divorce of their souls will not occur, as must occur in 
polygamous marriages. 

The normal husband and wife do not permit sexual 
intercourse to occur except when children are desired, 
and the number of their children will not be greater 
than they are capable of supplying with health and 
educational advantages; and not until the necessary 
comforts of home are secured will they permit concep- 
tion to occur. The intelligent wife never becomes 
pregnant except by her own consent, as she should 
have the best judgment to determine when pregnancy 
shall occur, and when she is prepared to "pass 
through the valley of the shadow of death " in order 
to bring into existence another human being to endure 
the suffering of human existence. 

After conception and during the period of gestation 
parents should devote much time and care to mental 
development, by reading works of a high standard; 
especially should they study some branch of science, 
literature or art, in order that they may develop some 
special talent in their child. By avoiding excesses and 
emotions the child will possess superior natural abili- 
ties, and in future years, by possessing physical and 
mental health, will attain a high degree of intellectual 
culture and morality. When parents live pure lives 
they impart to their child virtues which will increase 
with years. 

Although a normal father is just as essential as a 
normal mother, Dr. Wier Mitchel says : " You never 
knew a great man, a man of powerful brain and mas- 
terful energy, born of a weak woman ; the superior 



268 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

strength of mind in man comes almost invariably from 
the mother; the father may transmit traits as he often 
transmits weakness, but the mind of the male child 
almost always derives its real force from the mother. 
If she has a strong character, sterling virtues, and has 
lived a healthful life, her son will reap the richer 
harvest of vital and mental strength." 

As the father's character reappears in the daughter, 
the same can be said of fathers transmitting their 
strength or weakness to their daughters; therefore 
when brothers consider themselves superior to their 
sisters, they should remember that their superiority is 
due to their mother's intellect, while their sisters have 
inherited their inferior intellect from their father. It 
is now accepted as a scientific fact that mental quali- 
ties are transmitted from fathers to daughters and from 
mothers to sons; yet both parents have decided influ- 
ence upon the unborn child of either sex, which will 
affect its life in after years. 

During pregnancy attention should be given to 
keeping the surface of the body clean by a vapor bath 
once a week, and by rubbing the surface of the body 
every day with Turkish towels, in order to establish 
a normal circulation and keep the surface of the body 
clean. Evacuation from the bowels should take place 
every day. A vegetable and fruit diet is best. If meats 
are eaten, they should be fish, lamb and young fowl. 
Fruits may be eaten at any time when one feels in- 
clined to eat; meals should be regular, and should be 
served three times a day; pleasant occupation that is 
not severe or tiresome is advisable, and moderate 



NORMAL PARENTAGE 269 

exercise daily in the open air is requisite. During 
exercise the chest should be elevated, to allow free respi- 
ration. There should be stated times for reading and 
rest of the body and mind. During the periods of 
gestation and lactation the mother should have knowl- 
edge of all necessary requirements, and the father 
should be capable of furnishing those requirements 
for the health and comfort of the mother and child. 

When parents make special efforts to live normally, 
the -process of bringing children into the world will 
not be degraded by intense mental and physical suffer- 
ing. If they realize the responsibility they have under- 
taken in the creation and development of another 
being, the divine Parents will abundantly reward them 
for the healthful influence of their minds upon that 
of their child. Parents should especially try to avoid 
abnormal prenatal development. If after conception 
occurs and the human fetus is passing through the 
different evolutions of animal life, should an accident 
occur which checks the normal process of the entire 
body, or even a part, without death occurring, the em- 
bryo may degenerate into the resemblance of an animal, 
belonging to that stage of development in which its 
embryonic life had been interrupted. Many such in- 
stances as the following are recorded, and have actually 
occurred. A woman becomes pregnant, and during 
the early part of her pregnancy when the physical body 
of the child is especially developing, the mother be- 
comes extremely frightened by some one of the lower 
animals; the vital equilibrium of the embryo is so dis- 
turbed that instead of developing into a resemblance 



27O WOMAN AND DISEASE 

of its parents, its vital force is directed in developing a 
degenerated physical body, resembling a lower animal; 
in some instances the resemblances between the mon- 
strosity produced at birth and the animal that caused 
the fright is more than a resemblance. Even in adult 
life one may grow to resemble in character the object 
upon which the thoughts dwell, or a person may be- 
come so low in the scale of humanity as to resemble 
the next lower species, as has recently occurred in the 
case of a man who had committed twenty-seven mur- 
ders, and afterwards rehearsed his crimes with evident 
satisfaction, during months of confinement before his 
execution. In embryonic development it is especially 
true. Illustrations of this kind can be seen in the 
museums of pathology in medical colleges. 

Abnormal influences affecting the unborn child are 
denied by many male physicans. They scorn the idea 
of antenatal influences affecting the physical or mental 
constitution of a child. An intelligent mother knows 
that the condition of her mind during gestation and 
even lactation affects her child ; yet the testimonials 
of such enlightened mothers are excluded. But how 
came these " wise men " to be in possession of superior 
knowledge of a condition in which they have had no 
personal experience? 

Dr. Austin Flint in his text-book on Human Physi- 
ology says : " It has long been a question whether im- 
pressions made upon the nervous system of the mother 
can exert an influence upon the fetus in utero. It 
often happens that when a child is born with a de- 
formity, the mother imagines she can explain it by 



NORMAL PARENTAGE 27 I 

some impression received during pregnancy, which she 
recalls only after she knows the child is deformed. 
There is, indeed, no satisfactory evidence that the 
maternal mind has anything to do with the production 
of deformities in utero." 

There are many cases in which maternal influences 
were known to produce certain effects on the child 
before its birth, and numerous cases are recorded. 
Recently a collection of such cases has been made by 
Mr. Stinson Jarvis, which had been reported by Eng- 
lish, American and French doctors. Another much 
larger collection has been made by Dr. Elliot. These 
reports show that the influence of maternal mental 
conditions upon the coming offspring may affect al- 
most every kind of alteration. This subject has re- 
cently been discussed by Mr. Jarvis in the Arena, 
September, 1895, m which he gives various records. 
Purefoy. reports the case of a woman who, when about 
four months pregnant, tried to rear by hand a calf of 
which the right ear, right eye, and forelegs were absent. 
When her child was born it was similarly deformed; 
i. e., the right ear, right eye, and right arm were absent. 

Roth gives ten cases of hare-lip, one case of spina- 
bifida, one case of cleft-palate, and one case of naevus 
resulting from expecting mothers having witnessed simi- 
lar deformities. 

Dr. Fearn gives the following case : An expecting mother 
witnessed the removal of one of the metacarpal bones from 
her husband's hand. She was greatly shocked and 
alarmed. Afterwards her child was born without the cor- 
responding bone which was removed from the father. 



2/2 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

Dr. Dorsey reports : Dr. G. sustained a fracture of 
his leg. The facts concerning the mother were the 
same as in the last mentioned case. When the child 
was born it had on the leg corresponding with the 
injured limb of the father, and at precisely the same 
spot, the appearance of a fracture of the limb, and there 
was also a decided shattering of the bone. 

The late Dr. Fordyce Barker, who was one of the 
most eminent physicans in America, reported a case 
where under analogous circumstances a child was born 
with holes in the lobes of its ears, the result of the 
mother seeing holes bored in the ears of a favorite 
daughter. The mother was averse to the daughter's 
having her ears pierced, and the operation shocked her. 
He also reported the case of a bride at the Grammercy 
Park Hotel, New York, who sat down at the table opposite 
a gentleman who had three daughters, all with hare-lips. 
The young wife was overcome by the shock, and her 
own child was born with the same deformity. He also 
quoted Dr. Maguire, of Richmond, Va., as to a slave 
cutting off one of his big toes to maim himself, and thus 
avoid being sold into another family. This was done in 
the presence of his mistress, then expecting. Her child, 
when born, lacked the same toe. 

Malebranche reports a case of an expecting mother 
who through curiosity was led to witness the breaking 
of a criminal "upon the wheel." She shuddered at 
every blow, and almost swooned at the victim's cries. 
When her child was born it was found that its limbs 
were broken like those of the malefactor, and in ex- 
actly the same places. The account says:. "This poor 



NORMAL PARENTAGE 273 

infant, which had suffered pains of life before birth, 
did not die, but lived for twenty years in a Paris hos- 
pital — a terrible instance of the ability of the mother 
to alter and distort the infant in the womb." 

Dr. Minot, of Boston, tells of a patient whose child 
was born lacking all the fingers of one hand. The 
mother had been greatly shocked when sitting in a 
street-car opposite a man whose hand was in this con- 
dition. 

There seems to be no end of cases of the above kind, 
in which the mother had received shock either in per- 
sonal injuries or in witnessing the calamities of others, 
which has in some way become concentrated, either 
through her affections, admirations, or compassions, 
or in the fascination of horror, upon some object 
which the creative processes within her copied and 
reproduced. 1 

But more remarkable, perhaps, are the more frequent 
cases where enciente mothers have by their own de- 
termined effort and continued concentration altered 
their coming children while they were yet in the em- 
bryo, and have made them, both physically and as to 
special mental talents, markedly different from their 
other children which were before or afterwards born. 
The reported cases show that the musical, the mechan- 
ical, the engineering, and other desirable talents have 
been conferred upon children by the intentional con- 
centration of the mothers. Bonaparte's genius for war 
received the fullest and most instructive explanation. 

1 Knowing this, there should be laws made and enforced to prevent exposition of 
deformities on the public streets. 



274 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

There are other recorded cases which show how in- 
fants take the likeness of any figure or picture which 
fascinates the mother during gestation — children who 
are totally unlike either the parents or their previous or 
subsequent children. Beautiful dolls, figures in wax, 
and fascinating statuary have all been reproduced in 
life. And it may seem strange enough when a colored 
picture in a Chris:::: as number of the Illustrated Lon- 
don News is copied into a living being. Yet so it has 
been, as shown in a case reported by Dr. J. Adams in 
his Advice to Mothers." Here the expecting mother 
conceived a gTeat admiration for the picture referred 
to, in which was represented a child, very fair, with 
light yellow hair. The print was framed and hung at 
the foot of the bed. The parents both had decided 
dark complexions and hair, as had all their previous 
and subsequent children. But the child in question 
proved to be simply a reproduction of the picture. 
French lithographs and all kinds of other inanimate 
things that caused intense admiration in the love of the 
beautiful, or gave rise to the fascination of horror, have 
been copied with wonderful exactness into human beings. 

These facts, which in former years were sometimes 
dismissed unnoticed as "old women's stories," take a 
very different aspect when certified to by the most 
clever and careful men in three continents. 

It will not be surprising if the future expcsrs some 
of the false teachings of "old mens stories," which 
they have been preaching and teaching as superior 
knowledge. Nevertheless, fac:s are facts, regardless of 
those who report them. 



NORMAL PARENTAGE 275 

11 Whose fault is it ? " Recently a religious journal 
published the following article, in order that the public 
may know that the abnormal condition and death of so 
many infants was due to the mothers who have "neither 
morals nor common sense." The article reads thus: 
" A physician in New York explains to Popular Science 
Monthly the mortality of the infants of that city. It 
comes of the refusal or inability of mothers to supply 
the natural food. ' When the poor, pinched, blue, 
weazened little creatures were brought to me in the 
dispensary in New York, where they used to come by 
the dozen, I would call for their nursing bottles, take a 
whiff of their sour, putrid contents, swarming with 
bacteria, pull off the rubber nipple and the ivory 
guard, rip up the long tube with my pen knife and 
scrape up the green, poisonous matter, tyrotoxicon, 
and spread it out on my palm before the astonished 
mother.' Why should she be astonished? For the 
reason, evidently, that she has neither moral nor com- 
mon sense. The baby dies; and that is a blessed thing 
for the baby." 

Religious editors should know that these "poor, 
pinched, blue, weazened, little creatures" and the 
mothers' inability to nurse them is more often caused 
by their venereal diseased fathers, of whom their 
mothers have contracted disease, and from whom chil- 
dren have inherited their miserable conditions of body 
and mind. It is quite time that the public should 
understand that the cause of disease and sin of the 
world does not originate entirely with the mother, but 
that it is much oftener caused by the father. 



276 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

We learn in the study of normal antenatal develop- 
ment 1 that the beginning of each physical body occurs 
when conception takes place, which is the union of the 
spermatozoa excreted from the testicles of the male, 
and the ovule excreted from the ovary of the female. 
The union of these germ-cells develops a complex indi- 
vidual cell termed the ovum. The first four months 
of its life it is termed an embryo. From the fourth 
month until its birth it is called a fetus. All vegetable 
and animal bodies originate from the union of male 
and female germ-cells; such a union produces a com- 
plex individual male-cell, which develops, according to 
natural laws, into an adult of the same species to which 
the parent cell belongs. At the beginning of the em- 
bryonic life two kinds of cells commence developing, — 
the body cells and the reproductive cells, such as each 
of its parents possessed. Thus the union of male and 
female reproductive cells produces a complex individual 
cell, within an external covering termed the vitelline 
membrane. This complex cell is composed of proto- 
plasmic substance or archoplasmic material which play 
an important part in the physical development of the 
embryo. Suspended in this archoplasmic material is 
the nucleus or physical centre, from which will de- 
velop the physical body of the predominating male or 
female individual. Within the nucleus is centered a 
nucleolus, the psychic centre from which will develop 
the cerebro-spinal system ; the soul life evolves through 
this system. 

1 Quotations from various medical works. 







Ovule, conception and first four stages of development of the ovum. 



Plate XXXVIII. 



NORMAL PARENTAGE 277 

Plate XXXIV represents five stages of the develop- 
ment of the ovum : 

a. The unimpregnated ovule as seen when first ex- 
pelled from the ovary. 

b. The union of the spermatozoa and the ovule and 
the genesis of the ovum. 

c. The first segmentation or division that occurs after 
conception. 

d. The division of the ovum into four cells. 
~e. The division into eight cells. 

f. The numerous cell development. 

Plate XXXV represents the ovum about the tenth 
day of the development after conception has occurred. 

Sometimes an ovum is retained, and develops within 
the fallopian tube. Such a condition is termed a tubal 
pregnancy. In case such a condition occurs and is 
diagnosticated at an early period, the ovum can be con- 
verted into a semi-liquid material by the intelligent use 
of electricity, and the entire mass discharged through 
the uterus. This has been successfully done, and the 
mother's life saved. 

Plate XXXVI represents an impregnated ovum two 
weeks after conception, showing the first stages in the 
development of the spinal column. Thus the indi- 
vidual life first begins to develop its nervous system. 
The more complex the nervous system the more com- 
plexly will the individual manifest life. 

Plate XXXVII represents the ovum at about the 
third week, with the surrounding tissues by which new 
membranes are to be found. The eyes, ears and upper 
extremities are perceptible. Two vessels form the 



278 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

blood communications between the mother and child. 
These umbilical vessels extend from the abdomen of 
the child to the placenta, or "after-birth," which be- 
comes attached to the upper part or side of the uterus. 

Plate XXXVIII represents the ovum at about the 
fifth week of its development. The attachment be- 
tween the uterus and ovum is formed by the placenta, 
the umbilical vessels uniting- to form the umbilical cord. 
The extremities of the child can be easily recognized. 

Plate XXXIX represents the fetus at two months 
with the placenta strongly attached. The eyes, ears and 
upper extremities are easily recognized. 

Plate XL represents the ovum at the third month 
of gestation. The umbilical vessels have united to 
form the umbilical cord, and strong placenta attach- 
ments are formed. The ovum is now called a fetus. 
The membranes surrounding the fetus have become 
thinner and more firmly united ; they now contain am- 
niotic fluid, in which the child is suspended to prevent 
injuries to its body or to that of the mother. 

Plate XL I represents retroversion during pregnancy; 
displacement of the uterus often occurs, from various 
causes, as excessive exercise in walking, standing or 
lifting, and sexual intercourse, which is invariably in- 
jurious to the mind and body both of mother and child. 
The most serious displacements during pregnancy are 
retroversion and retroflexion of the uterus. 

Plate XL 1 1 represents retroflexion of the uterus. In 
such case a miscarriage unually occurs at the third 
month. To aid in correcting these displacements the 
knee-chest position should be taken three or four 
times a day. 




Ten days after conception. 



Plate XXXIX. 







Fourteen days after conception. 



Plate XL. 







Third ^week of pregnancy. 



Plate XL I. 




Fifth week of pregnancy. 



Plate XLII. 




Ninth week of pregnancy. 



Plate XLIII. 




Third month of pregnancy. 



Plate XLIV. 





Retroversion during pregnancy. 



Plate XLV. 




Retroflexion during pregnancy. 



Plate XLVI. 




Eighth month of pregnancy. 



Plate XL VI I 




Ninth month of pregnancy. 



Plate XLVIII. 



NORMAL PARENTAGE 279 

Plate XLIII represents one of the most frequent 
positions the fetus or child takes at the eighth month, 
of pregnancy, preparatory to dilatation of the cervix 
or neck of the uterus. This change should begin in 
the eighth month. 

Plate XL IV shows the normal position of carrying 
a child during pregnancy. Beneath the child's head 
accumulates the liquor amnii producing dilatation of 
the cervix preparatory to labor, or expulsion of the 
child from the uterus. This dilatation impels the con- 
traction of the upper part of the uterus and later 
excites the action of the abnominal muscles which so 
greatly aids in the birth of a child. All pregnant 
women should learn that a normal position of the body 
in walking or standing is absolutely necessary for the 
health of both mother and child. The weight of the 
body should rest upon the balls of the feet and not 
upon the heels. The abdominal muscles should be 
kept in tonic contraction, to support the organs of the 
body and the child in correct positions. 

After labor or parturition the mother should not lift 
her child. She should not go up and down stairs nor 
endure any annoyance for at least six weeks after con- 
finement, as the pelvic organs are not in their normal 
position before that length of time. After a rest of six 
weeks a mother should be physically strong enough to 
have the care of her child, but under no circumstances 
should she have the care of the house. She should 
have a competent house-keeper and some one to do her 
sewing. It is enough for a mother to keep her health 
of body and mind that she may continue educating in 



280 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

the right direction the child that has been entrusted 
to her care, and for whom she is in part responsible. A 
mother should be well versed in all that is necessary 
for the child's health, knowing how to develop the 
right habits even from birth. Every mother should 
have a thorough knowledge of the kindergarten meth- 
ods of educating young children, in order that she may 
begin from the first to teach the child right habits of 
mind and body. A child learns as naturally as it 
breathes, and with as little effort, if it is led into the 
pleasing way of learning. As soon as a child is capa- 
ble of comprehending the wisdom of words, let the 
mother interest it concerning the child-God who came 
to this world as an example for children, as well as the 
older part of humanity. It is remarkable how quickly 
children learn to love and imitate the example of 
Christ. Such teaching dispenses with cruel punish- 
ment of children, just as it does with cruel punishment 
of the adult, as soon as one accepts and follows Christ's 
teachings. A child well-born and well-bred will mani- 
fest a decided tendency to learn thoroughly concerning 
some special science. 

At an early age the child should be taught to de- 
termine quickly but accurately, and also taught that an 
irresolute or vacillatory mind can neither think clearly 
nor decide wisely. Children led into pure, noble lines 
of thought, and taught to express such thoughts accu- 
rately will develop sculptured features of strength, 
beauty and character which can be retained so long as 
life lasts. Only truly educated mothers should teach 
young children, for they alone can best understand the 



NORMAL PARENTAGE 28 1 

special needs of these little ones of such sensitive and 
varied temperaments. If parents wish their children to 
be polite and thoughtful of others' comforts, the latter 
should be so treated by their parents and by other 
grown people. They should listen to children without 
interrupting them, and answer their questions as they 
wish their own questions answered. 

As parents treat children, so will children in turn 
treat their parents, and indeed all others. One child 
well-born and well-bred will be a greater benefit to the 
world than a dozen ill-born and ill-bred children. If 
the lower animals can be so well trained as to produce 
a thorough-bred race, 1 what can intelligence, combined 
with virtue, not do for the human race ? 

In the history of the human family, from the earliest 
record to the present time, one recognizes that humanity 
has been continually evolving through refining pro- 
cesses ; this refining process is controlled by divine 
justice, and that evil came into existence through 
human minds deliberately ignoring divine laws and 
later imparting to their children these acquired tenden- 
cies; thus evil has been transmitted from parents to 
children through all the ages. Yet the divine Parents 
have from the beginning provided a way of escape from 
evil, by imparting to each wisdom and conscience ; and 
have given to each human being freedom of thought 
and action, the privilege of doing right or wrong, and 
knowledge that as each and all sow, so shall they reap. 

1 It is hardly an exaggeration to say that the average man who has both children 
and livestock is willing to pay far more for the training of the latter than for the 
former. The one he supervises in person ; the other he delegates to the world, or 
to circumstances. 



282 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

From such knowledge the human parent should learn 
that upon the development of the highest moral, phys- 
ical and mental type of men and women depends the 
development of normal children with normally evolved 
moral and intellectual powers. 

Man should be taught his true position as husband 
and father, and especially his obligation during the 
period of his wife's gestation and lactation. The deep 
and absorbing sorrow and joy of motherhood, the 
thousand and one subtle links which connect the form- 
ing soul with the maternal life, have never been com- 
prehended by men; neither have they realized that 
degeneracy of the physical or mental powers is as in- 
jurious to one sex as to the other; that an undue atten- 
tion to the lower functions of animal life is a hindrance 
to the higher spiritual development; therefore the first 
essentials in normal reproduction are conditions of 
health of body and mind on the part of both parents. 



CHAPTER XXVII 

WOMAN'S INTELLECTUAL EVOLUTION 1 

Contents. — Eve the First to desire Wisdom. — Names of Illustrious Women. — 
The Gospel of Christ vs. Human Dogmas. — A Business Life as Helpful to 
Woman as to Man. — Servile Dependence in Money Matters degrading. — The 
Home-makers' Club. — The Woman's Bible. — The Advancement of Woman 
does not cause the extirpation of the Home. — Business Life particularly Helpful 
to the Pregnant Woman. — Contrasted Cases. — The Purifying Influence from 
Association with Offspring. — Degeneracy due to Sexual Preponderance. — 
Woman's Finer Organism expressive of Power and Adaptation. 

It has been stated that " there are two ways of reading 
history. One way is to get the facts and draw your 
own conclusions from them. The other way is to make 
your case first and search the history of humanity for 
facts to support it. The latter is the most popular 
way." Both ways may be pursued in tracing woman's 
intellectual evolution through the past ages ; and both 
ways are equally practical in tracing the effect of 
woman's influence on the world. According to "The 
Woman's Record " and " The Man's Bible," Eve, the 
first human mother, was created 4004 years B.C. 2 She 
was the highest evolution of the animal kingdom, and 
also the first individual of that kingdom to express a 
desire for wisdom. 

Although there were no doubt many women quite as 
intelligent as Eve who lived during the ages that fol- 
lowed, there is no special record given until 2200 B. C, 
when Semiramis, a celebrated queen of Assyria, made 

1 Woman's Record. 

2 The Old Testament is responsible for this statement. Gen. i.27. 

283 



284 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

Babylon the most magnificent city in the world ; she 
visited every part of her dominions, and left every- 
where monuments of her greatness. She leveled moun- 
tains, filled up valleys, and had water conveyed by 
immense aqueducts to barren deserts and beautiful 
plains. Then follows a chain of centuries, reaching 
to the present century, with its illustrious women. The 
record begins with Sarai, of Chaldea, 1900 B.C., who 
was named the mother of nations. 

In 1800 B.C., Rebekah of Mesopotamia, and her 
husband set the example of monogamic marriage, which 
is the only true marriage. 

In 1700 B.C., Rachel of Syria became the mother of 
an ideal son, whom she named Joseph. 

In 1600 B.C., Shipharah, a physician of Egypt, a 
beautiful and intellectual woman, who with five hun- 
dred other women physicians were employed by the 
Egyptian and Israelite women to attend them in their 
illness. 

Jochebed was a wise Israelite mother in Egypt, whose 
daughter Miriam, and sons, Moses and Aaron, led the 
Israelities out of bondage from the Egyptians, 1500 
B.C. Miriam was a prophet and poet. 

In 1300 B.C., Deborah, a prophet, general and judge 
of Israel, led an army of ten thousand Israelites and 
defeated the Canaanite's army of thirty thousand in- 
fantry and ten thousand cavalry. The Israelites were 
in subjection to the Canaanites until Deborah led them 
to victory and freedom. 

In 1200 B.C., Angitia, of Colchis, was a chemist, and 
taught the use of antidotes for poisons. 



woman's intellectual evolution 285 

In 1 1 00 B.C., Phantasia was then a celebrated Egyp- 
tian writer. Chiron, a celebrated personage of antiquity, 
asserted that Phantasia wrote a poem on the Trojan 
War, and another on the return of Ulysses to Ithaca, 
from which Homer copied the greater part of the Iliad 
and Odyssey when he visited Memphis, where these 
poems were deposited. 

Rizpah lived 1000 B.C. Her life was ruined by Saul, 
who was then king, and later her sons were sacrificed 
by David, who reigned after Saul. Rizpah's sad story 
has been the theme of poets ; and artists have pictured 
this mother watching beside the bleaching bones of her 
murdered sons. 

The queen of Sheba, who lived 900 B.C., was sovereign 
of Ethiopia, and a philosopher who especially desired 
wisdom. 

Athaliah, 800 B.C., was queen of Samaria, and reigned 
six years. 

Acca-Laurentia, who lived 700 B.C., was a Roman 
bond-woman, " a nurse of Remus and Romulus." She 
was deified by the Romans, who once a year offered 
sacrifice on a holiday instituted in her honor. 

Telos, 600 B.C., wrote a fine poem in Greek, con- 
sisting of three hundred verses ; her style is said to 
have resembled that of Homer. 

Damophila was a Greek philosopher, and lived 600 
B.C. 

Agnodice, a German woman, was an eminent phy- 
sician, of whom male physicians were jealous because 
of her eminent success. 

Vashti, a noble Persian queen, lead a long line of 



.". : :'.z \ ::.-:. ~~:5r :: : :: ~- : :. i ~:si:r^: r.irrt been 
:ht nv:s: t~cie::: ':::::. z;. p™ e: ::: ezimcirirlr:* s"ivts 
in every land. 

Damo, an Italian philosopher, lived 50c E . I. She 
■;- :/.t :;: r /.-7' :: Pyrhipzrii ir.£ ~rii :::::;.::: :z 
all Ihe secrets of her fathers philosophy. She ;s 
::::.^::: "::;: ill his ":::::\y - : :::\ ':.- ::;::::: her 
not to make public, and she faithfully kept her promise, 
:h : 'i g:h :trj: yrti ~::r. irpe :~'tr= :: ziczty — hilr ~~ :■■ 
rli-r "~ ":"-"- ±"~i_.= ::' pc-veryy I'm: t:.::^:: z::t 
y: .:;_ ':::::: 

_ : : 7:::.'.:- 2. ^rtziir. "r_:.: szyr.tr ~zi :zt :: :ie .t.inr: 
women who taught Socrates the 1 : :. - l_ ■: s: 1 

is /. t : ...' :.:t.: : - : . - .. - : 

7;:v.::::; •:: : ~ ~i= ;-. itlezriTti phil: = zyher :: 
the Pythagorian school. 

Axizchtz ::■: Z T — 2.= ;-. ■: :; : = iz'r.tz ir. :.t ~pe :i 
r'.i:: ~h:st .eiTTirrS =ht ziztzitz 

Aztzt :: ryrer.e - : rhiLiszyhe: :: 7.7 e : : ..: :e~- 
:..-" Ski "~:~ iirtfuky : .". -: . :::: y hrr fsrher. 7k e 
iiTzrie: :: ir.t Iyrtr.i:: ?ys:t:r. :: pkikszyky Aker 
his death the daughter taught her father s system with 
prtz: e-t; ::±ss 

rr.zk :. y; ..:::.:. : :: remirkizle p:~±r :■: ziizi • :- 
issiztz : . ifziirs :: '.:.- ^:~:r.---. ::.\ ::.-;.'." :.-:. '_■-'- 
vriry y he: kvrkt: :i: :: :kt ~kes7 pzkr.knTzs :: 
:ht rkr.ts by skkkk r_7 z r. 2 pe 777^777 she prtvtnTri ... 
army of turbulent spirits from m a : : g i s e : : 
She :yy-:sr"i '.:.- izyrtsszrs :: :ht i"z::tr_: ~ -::.". s: 
much vigor that she preserved the lives of many guilt- 



WOMAN S INTELLECTUAL EVOLUTION 287 

Cornelia, a Roman of the third century, gave public 
lectures on philosophy in Rome. Cicero said of her 
that had she not been a woman, she would have de- 
served the first place among philosophers. The world 
has known many such objective men as Cicero. 

Hortensia, a Roman of the first century, was an orator 
who for elegance of language and justness of thought 
would do honor to Cicero or Demosthenes. 

Alexandra, queen of Judea, being wise and virtuous, 
studied to please her subjects, and preserved peace and 
prosperity during her reign of seven years. 

Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, was the intellectual peer 
of Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, statesmen of Rome, 
with whom she associated. 

Marianne was the wife of Herod, king of Judea. 
Herod caused her to be put to death B.C. 28, and she 
met death with great firmness. 

In the first century of the Christian era there 
were many noble women. Mary, the human mother 
of Christ, Martha, and her sister Mary, Mary Magda- 
len, and many other women, were true disciples of Christ. 

Veleda, a German prophetess during the first century 
A.D., exerted a powerful influence over her own coun- 
trymen, and the Roman governors regarded her with 
great awe and dread. She instigated Germany to re- 
bel against the Romans. 

Felicitas, of Rome, died a Christian martyr, 162 A.D. 
She perished after seeing her seven sons suffer death as 
martyrs. 

Julia Domna, a physician, was highly educated in the 
sciences and philosophy. 



288 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

Zenobia, queen of Palmyra, was noted for her supe- 
rior mental ability. 

St. Paula, a Roman woman of great learning, was a 
notable example of Christ's teachings. 

Hypatia, a learned and virtuous woman, was educated 
in the Platonic school of Alexandra, of which she be- 
came a governor and professor ; Peter, a lecturer, jealous 
of her superior ability, headed a conspiracy against 
Hypatia. The conspirators waylayed her, dragged her 
to a church, where they tore the clothing from her body, 
and then literally tore her body into pieces. This 
occurred March, 415, A.D. 

Eustachium, of Rome, was learned in Greek, Hebrew 
and Latin. 

In 419 A.D., Thecla, of Alexandria, transcribed the 
whole Bible into Greek from the original Septuagent 
copy then in the Alexandrian library. 

St. Hilda, a princess of Scotland, was learned in the 
Scriptures, and composed many religious works. She 
died 685, A.D. 

Irge, a Japanese princess, an author whose writings 
are said to be in great repute in her native land. 

Labana, a Moorish Spaniard, was skilled in philoso- 
phy. She died 995, A.D. 

Valada, a Moorish orator, many times contended with 
other scholars noted for their learning, and always bore 
away the palm. 

Hildeardis, of German) 7 , was a noted writer. 

Gozzardini, of Bologna, took the highest honors at 
the university. She afterwards graduated in law, and 
obtained the title of doctor and the privilege of wearing 
the professional robe. 



woman's intellectual evolution 289 

Labana, a Spanish Moor, who died about 1300, was 
celebrated for her learning. 

Abella, an Italian lady of rank, was the author of 
several works on medicine. 

Joan of Arc was one of the bravest of French warriors. 

Isabella, a celebrated queen of Spain, contributed 
more financial support than any other person to the 
discovery of America. 

Isabella Losa, of Spain, took the degree of doctor of 
laws, being illustrious for knowledge of Hebrew, Latin, 
and Greek. She died March 5, 1546. 

Fidelis, of Venice, was one of the first scholars of that 
age. 

Lady Armyne lived in the seventeenth century. She 
was distinguished for her learning in history, divinity, 
and the languages. She endowed three hospitals. 

Doctor Helen Cornaro, a Venetian lady of rank, 
graduated as a physician, and afterwards was admitted 
to the university of Rome. She was the author of 
many literary productions, and highly honored at her 
death, 1685. 

Jacquette Guillaume, a French writer, published a 
work declaring the superiority of the female over the 
male sex through the whole human and animal creation. 
Her style was elegant and unaffected, and her researches 
showed great knowledge and skill. 

Laura Creta, of Italy, was a woman proficient in 
languages and philosophy. She corresponded with the 
most eminent scholars and philosophers then living in 
Europe. Her death occurred in the eighteenth cen- 
tury, and was greatly lamented. 



2QO WOMAN AND DISEASE 

Caroline L. Herschel, an English astronomer, was 
the chief companion and adviser of her brother, Sir 
William Herschel, whose equal she was in mathematical 
and astronomical science. She was born in 1750, and 
died in 1848. 

Abigail Smith Adams, an American, who originated 
the idea of the Declaration of Independence. She was 
a fine scholar, and noted for her wisdom. 

Elizabeth Bland, of England, was remarkable for her 
knowledge of the Hebrew language. She died in the 
early part of the eighteenth century. 

Madame du Chatelet a remarkable French scholar, 
and equal, if not superior, to Voltaire in abstract learn- 
ing, died in 1749. 

Reinier Guistina Michiel, born in Venice, 1755. She 
was a noted scientist and author of works on botany. 
Died in 1832. 

Lucretia Coffin Mott daughter of French and Quaker 
parents, She was celebrated as an opponent of slavery 
: : ivery kind, and was true to woman's cause. She 
died in 1S89. 

Harriet Martineau, a French writer of world-wide 

ne, was born in 1802. 

Maria Mitchell, an American astronomer, was hon- 
ored in many lands. She was born in 1S18. 

Almira Hart Lincoln, the well-known author of Lin- 
coln's botany, was born in 1S49. 

Mary Somerville, writer in the fields of physical 
geography, everywhere quoted as an authority, was 
born in 1S49. 

Anna S. Stephens, a noted American writer and editor. 



WOMAN S INTELLECTUAL EVOLUTION 29 1 

Victoria, queen of England and empress of India, is 
one of the wisest and best sovereigns that has a place 
in history. She was born in 1819. 

Helen Maria Weber was born in Paris in 1825. She 
was educated in Leipsic, and was a brilliant writer. A 
celebrated French critic who was opposed to the course 
in which she was engaged, acknowledged that she pos- 
sessed the highest order of intellect and a thorough 
knowledge of social and political economy. 

Harriet Beecher Stowe, born in Connecticut in 181 2, 
the author of " Uncle Tom's Cabin," which was one of 
the greatest factors in emancipating the colored race. 

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a true American. Being a 
Greek scholar and a wise friend of woman, she is abun- 
dantly capable of accomplishing the difficult work she 
is now engaged in, which is the discovery and rescue 
of " The Woman's Bible " from the debris of ignorance, 
superstition and bigotry. Probably some day men will 
become wise enough to accomplish such a work for 
their Bible. 

Susan B. Anthony, one of woman's staunchest friends, 
and Matilda Joslyn Gage, author of "Woman, Church 
and State," with Mrs. Stanton are the authors of the 
" History of Woman's Suffrage." These three brave 
and noble women have accomplished the most difficult 
part of that tedious work of woman's emancipation 
from political tyranny. 

Helen Gardener, a fearless writer, author of " Is 
This Your Son, My Lord?" "Pray You, Sir, Whose 
Daughter ? " etc. 

Ursula N. Gesterfield, author of " The Woman Who 



292 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

Dares," and Eliza Burt Gamble, author of the " Evolu- 
tion of Woman," and other philosophical works, are 
three noble and fearless workers who have accom- 
plished a great work in the emancipation of women 
from sensuality. We should all remember with grati- 
tude these six brave women, who for the benefit of 
women have endured severe persecution and unjust 
criticism. Today the world is beginning to recognize 
their superior wisdom. 

Many names could still be added to the list of women 
who have practically demonstrated their intellectual 
ability in all lines of legitimate business by which they 
have gained financial compensation, strength of char- 
acter, health of bodies and minds, and today every 
woman living has better opportunities because of the 
great works these noble women have accomplished. 

Although in the century of the past women have 
been as proficient as men in every line of thought and 
care for the normal advancement of humanity, still 
the followers of St. Paul insist that woman is intellec- 
tually inferior to man and that the wife should be in 
subjection to the husband. 

That gospel which Christ gave to the world teaches 
the true ideas of independence and equality of men 
and women; the germs of truth which he planted in 
the heart of humanity are now blossoming as intel- 
lectual flowers that in the future will produce fruits of 
the soul, and then humanity will comprehend that the 
members of the divine Family are no respecters of 
persons. 

An efficient aid to human progress is helping people 



WOMAN S INTELLECTUAL EVOLUTION 293 

to help themselves ; this is the only kind of financial 
assistance that is of permanent value to them. This 
truth is practically taught by the author of " Woman 
in the Business World," a book that has already been 
of inestimable value to woman. It proves conclusively 
that the business woman is a nineteenth-century prod- 
uct, of which the world will be justly proud in the 
near future, when the united works, of men and women 
will supply the world with all needed advantages for 
education and improvement. This author gives such 
"saving messages" as these: On self-dependence hangs 
woman's salvation from poverty and other evils ; that 
a business life is as great a discipline for woman as 
for man ; and that self-support is as much the duty 
of woman as of man. Servile dependence in money 
matters is no longer deemed wise for women ; these, 
with a great many more practical truths, originated 
with woman in the business w T orld. 

" The Woman's Bible " and the New National Woman's 
Club, or the Home-makers' Club, are the results of 
woman's evolution, not only intellectually and finan- 
cially, but religiously. 

According to the description given, the Home-mak- 
ers' Club teaches that both men and women should be 
not only the local home-makers but the national home- 
makers ; that when a woman is earning money in any 
line of business in which she has talent and proficiency, 
and which makes her capable of employing efficient 
housekeepers or assistants in any other line of business, 
she is not only improving her own talents but assists 
others in doing the same. 






294 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

As trained minds are the most efficient in any line of 
work, each person should be educated in the occupation 
assumed, there being no sex qualifications in any work 
that requires mental ability. 

One member of the Club said: 'We hope the time 
will come quickly when each family will not need its 
single little chimney sticking up toward heaven to prove 
that it is a home, and that each Monday there will not 
be so many little wash-boilers on so many little stoves 
in just so many kitchens, to wash so many clothes. 
When the home is rightly understood it will be the 
heart centre." 

Each individual member of the family should be 
considered as having an individual head and a mind 
capable of reasoning; when such is not the case an 
abnormal condition exists, which should be remedied 
as soon as possible. In the world, the nation and the 
home, humanity exists as a trinity ; therefore each indi- 
vidual member should have equal opportunities for 
improvement, each should possess an individual head, 
and each should attempt to rule only over sin, vice and 
disease, and to control self. 

Said another member: "The plea that advanced 
womanhood means extirpation of the home and family 
sounds well, but contains no truth. Nothing can injure 
the home and the family except vice and sin. Progress 
changes the home and the status of the family, but it 
never weakens them. Xo system or movement that 
runs counter to them can succeed ; no one appreciated 
this more than the advanced woman/' 

The progressive woman has an aversion to doing 



WOMAN S INTELLECTUAL EVOLUTION 295 

work for which she is not qualified, and which she 
cannot enjoy. She prefers to become capable of suc- 
ceeding in some occupation in which she has talent and 
receives a financial compensation ; whether as a physi- 
cian, a lawyer, a banker, a housekeeper, or in any other 
field of labor, she will attend strictly to her occupation, 
while others who are proficient in other lines of work 
will do the same. Any necessary work when done well 
is just as ennobling and honorable as any other, as it is 
the mind that ennobles or degrades the occupation. 

Still another member says : " Housework is honest 
and meritorious, and so is boot-blacking or messenger 
service, but in both cases it is a waste of energy and 
intellect for people who are unqualified for the work 
to take their time from that work for which they are 
qualified." The recording secretary of the National 
Home-makers' Club writes that "the increasing mem- 
bership of the society includes membership of nearly 
all professions, wives, mothers and young girls in the 
various stations of life, and also among the member- 
ship of the various local women's clubs. Letters from 
very many of the advanced thinkers on sociological, 
educational and altruistic subjects are received at the 
national headquarters at Audubon Park." 

As all women may be benefited by the National 
Home-makers' Club, so all women may be greatly bene- 
fited by reading " The Woman's Bible," both of which 
have come as blessings to humanity. 

By slightly transposing George Saville's description 
of " The Majesty of Truth " it clearly describes " The 
Woman's Bible " a power full of truth, a prerogative of 



::: WOMAN AND DISEASE 

triumph for the future; she has been kept under and 
suppressed, but her dignity ever remained with her ; even 
when enchained by falsehood he dares not speak ill of 
her before her face, or mention her before her friend. 
Such majesty she :?.rried about her that her most pros- 
perous enemies were fain to whisper their treason. All 
power upon the earth can never extinguish her ; she has 
lived in all ages, and will continue to live in all the future 
ages allotted to the human family. Let the patriarchal 
tyrants of today christen an opposition to her with what 
name they please, she will make it a dangerous thing to 
persist. She has lived very retired indeed ; nay, some- 
times so buried that only some few of the discerning 
ones of the human family could have a glimpse of her. 
With all that, she ever leads the way to purity and hap- 
piness of eternity, teaching the human family how to 
live that their souls shall never die. From the dark 
ages of the past " The Woman's Bible " comes forth 
presence causes terror to her enemies, gladness 
peace among her friends. 

Not only is there a gradual evolution of spiritual 
truths, but there is a natural evolution of the physical 
body. There seems to be a certain period in each 
human life for special development of the different 
- -terns of the body; there is not only intellectual and 
spiritual development, but there is in childhood special 
rrlular and circulatory development; in youth, special 
glandular and muscular development, and in adult life 
special mental and spiritual development. All these 
systems are distinct; yet normally they harmonize with 
each other. 






WOMAN S INTELLECTUAL EVOLUTION 2Q7 

As each system is developing - , special care of the 
health should be taken by daily exercise in the outdoor 
air. Children should be taught to cultivate healthy 
thoughts and actions ; to respect their parents if they 
are worthy of respect, as no one can respect those who 
do not deserve it, as it is the true character and not posi- 
tion or age that will insure respect. Later the youth 
should be taught to develop strength of character and 
power to pursue a noble line of business, with determi- 
nation to make the chosen business a success. As phys- 
ical and mental development depends upon systematic 
exercise, the physical body as well as the spiritual body 
of both sexes develops by normal exercise. 

Woman becomes weak in body and mind when she 
does not have sufficient outdoor exercise; if man were 
compelled to remain in the house to endure an excessive 
amount of petty cares, taking but little healthy exercise 
of mind and body; if lie were annoyed and fretted, and 
especially if he had developed the habit of constipation 
and its accompanying disorders, hemorrhoids, which 
would drain his system of blood at least once a month, 
and sometimes oftener; if he were compelled to wear 
tight and heavy clothing; to be either petted, pampered, 
scolded or ridiculed when the healthy wife came in from 
legitimate or financial business and sufficient outdoor 
exercise in the pure air; instead of boasting of his supe- 
rior physical or mental development, the husband would 
become weak, physically and mentally, and from impov- 
erished blood and brain he would become subject to the 
most terrible nervous disorders. 

When women gain the advantage of healthful exercise 



298 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

in the open air, a remunerative occupation, opportunities 
to develop physically, financially and mentally, humanity 
will observe the finest specimen of perfect human beings 
that has ever existed upon the earth. A human para- 
site, whether male or female, is always weak, physically 
and mentally. 

The author of a practical book for women, " What 
Women Should Know," says concerning occupation for 
pregnant women : " A business life is peculiarly suited 
to a pregnant woman." She speaks from personal expe- 
rience. A few years ago she became actively engaged 
in a literary life. She was obliged by the nature of her 
engagement to be present in the editorial office, and to 
take more or less active charge of affairs two or three 
days in the week. 

Not long after she began this life she became preg- 
nant. Schooled as she was in all the old ideas in 
regard to the matter, and with an active memory con- 
cerning her extreme physical and mental disability on 
former occasions, she thought she would have to cancel 
her engagement. She regretted this deeply, as the 
employment was entirely to her taste. However, she 
resolved to retain the position for at least a few months, 
or so long as health permitted. Her duties called her 
away from home every other da}'. She started at eight 
o'clock in the morning, going eight miles by boat, car- 
riage, and on foot to reach her office. On the alternate 
days at home she wrote, translated, read and corrected 
manuscript, answered letters, examined books, and gave 
personal and close attention to a large exchange-list. In 
the course of the summer the editor-in-chief took a six 



WOMAN S INTELLECTUAL EVOLUTION 



299 



weeks' holiday, and during that time she had entire edi- 
torial and partial business management of two monthly 
publications. Time wore on, and she waited patiently 
for her health to fail, but she persisted in feeling better 
and stronger, more energetic and more ambitious to 
work from first to last. Her neighbor, in the same con- 
dition, yet in a different state of health, looks on half in 
envy and half in astonishment, and exclaims : " What a 
wonderful woman ! Yet I am sure it would kill me, as 
I-can hardly drag myself about the house." 

No wonder, poor woman ! The monotony of her 
housework wearied her; trifles irritated her; her hus- 
band, a tolerably patient man, yet not quite a saint, 
sometimes got out of patience with her fretfulness and 
whims, and wondered why a woman should make herself 
so miserable in a state which is only in fulfilment of the 
requirements of nature. Her fretfulness irritated the 
family, and they lived in perpetual discomfort. She was 
so sick and so miserable ! besides, she was getting so 
heavy on her feet that she could hardly drag herself 
about. No wonder she envies her more fortunate neigh- 
bor, who did not seem to mind her condition at all, and 
w r ho was so cheerful and so active. 

Yet the abnormal woman failed to recognize the real 
cause of her neighbor's health. She believed it a case 
of constitutional organic difference between the two. 
She did not realize that mental stimulus and financial 
compensation are as great tonics for women as they are 
for men. 

An active life for a pregnant woman, as above de- 
scribed, even though she does not go to her office but 



300 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

once or twice a week, gives variety of occupation and 
food for thought, which prove exceedingly beneficial. 

In such a case a woman does not neglect her family ; 
for surely she might take that much time for the benefit 
of her health and enjoyment of a financial compensation 
without any one raising an objection. If she were a 
fashionable woman, devoted to society, no one would 
question her right to amuse herself for that space of 
time. And if she were a housekeeper, chained to a round 
of household duties, she would be compelled to neglect 
her children daily in a hundred ways, which would 
amount to more in the aggregate than two or three days 
a week of brief absence from the home, which is abso- 
lute necessary for every one's health and comfort. 

Even if only a few pregnant women in the past have 
pursued congenial occupations without detriment to 
their own health or that of their offspring, and with posi- 
tive beneficial results, other women may in the future 

do the same. 

Another practical illustration given was that of a 
woman physician, a professor in a medical college, who 
attended her patients faithfully to the last of her period 
of pregnancy. She delivered her regular weekly or semi- 
weekly lecture to the young women medical students, 
and before morning was the mother of a fine, healthy, 
promising boy, whose subsequent years seem in no way 
to belie the promises of his infancy. 

A pregnant woman can arrange her costume and carry 
her body so that pregnancy need not be detected by the 
public. The normal condition of pregnancy develops 
the body symmetrically. 



WOMAN S INTELLECTUAL EVOLUTION 3OI 

The period of bearing and rearing children should not 
begin before the age of twenty, and should certainly end 
before parents reach forty years of age ; psychic life of 
parents should then begin in earnest. Life then can be 
compared to the ending of hard physical labor and the 
beginning of that existence which to the intelligent 
mind is the most delightful part of human life, as the 
mind should then be free to develop the intellectual and 
soul powers. 

-Although among all species of physical life, humanity 
included, the females represent a higher stage of devel- 
opment than the males, this condition has no doubt 
been due to the intimate association of mothers with 
their offspring, which has had a purifying influence. In 
the human species if the fathers had been as careful 
in regard to their influence and association as intelligent 
mothers have been, there would be fewer morally dis- 
eased children and many more superior fathers than are 
now in existence. 

The most intelligent females of each species of the 
lower forms of life choose their companions, and exer- 
cise their judgment in selecting those most congenial to 
them. The males of any species that have inherited or 
acquired passionate desire for sexual intercourse, and 
have avoided the purifying influence of the offspring 
have descended low in the state of degeneracy, and such 
degraded males are ready to pair with any or many 
females. 

According to scientific authority refinement and supe- 
rior powers of discrimination in the female are of as 
remote origin as the vanity and selfishness of the male. 



302 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

Mr. Darwin and others have decided that these abnor- 
mal conditions have produced the greatest number of 
abnormalities in males. In a single male subject seven 
muscular variations proper to the apes were discovered. 

There are many proofs that man often reverts to his 
hairy progenitors. The straggling hairs which are scat- 
tered over the body of man are the rudiments of a uni- 
form hairy coat which enveloped his ancestors. Even in 
this age there exists in Japan a race of men covered 
with a thick coat of black hair. The corresponding race 
of women are not hairy like the men ; they have smooth, 
brown skin. 

Mr. Darwin says that as the body of woman is less 
hairy than that of man, and as this character is common 
to all races, we may conclude that it was our female 
semi-human ancestors who were first divested of hair, 
and that this occurred at an extremely remote period, 
before the several races had diverged from a common 
stock. 

Hairiness denotes a low stage of development. Other 
investigators declare that idiots are more numerous 
among males than among females, and are frequently 
covered with hair, and by acquirements of other charac- 
teristics more often revert to lower animal types. 

Diseases peculiar to female constitutions are not 
usually caused by structural defects ; but, on the con- 
trary, are due to the abuse she has received from her 
male mate, who is controlled by his predominating ani- 
mal passions. 

There are other abnormalities which have been dis- 
covered to be much more prevalent among men than 






WOMAN'S INTELLECTUAL EVOLUTION 3O3 

women, such as color blindness; numerous instances are 
recorded. In one family the males alone were affected 
with color blindness through seven generations. 

Teachers of drawing in the public schools of a large 
city made the statement that four per cent of all male 
pupils w r ere color blind, while only one-tenth of one per 
cent of female pupils were so affected. 

An observing writer says : " No explanation was 
offered for this strange fact ; indeed, it was pronounced 
a mystery, even oculists and surgeons having given it up 
as impenetrable," as many male investigators are in the 
habit of doing when any defects of their sex are discov- 
ered. Yet their own investigations have proved that 
defective vision, lack of physical endurance, and liability 
to organic affections occur much more frequently in the 
male than in the female. 

Then add to these defects his abnormal appetites, 
which he so frequently gratifies, and which are so inju- 
rious to his mental and physical condition, and one is 
enabled to judge to some extent of the obstacles against 
w T hich the future man will find himself obliged to con- 
tend in the struggle for existence, barriers which he has 
constructed and kept in existence by laws which he has 
made regardless of the many petitions of woman to have 
removed, for the children's sake at least. 

Witness in this present age woman's superiority of 
skill in the Treasury Department at the Capitol, at Edi- 
son's laboratory, or as chemists, microscopists, and in 
fact in all intricate work. 

" The hand, directed as it is by the brain, is the most 
completely differentiated member of the human struc- 



r;:: Therefore soman's intellectual superior: t i - due 

to Idie development of tine superior brain centres, while 
man has been developing- the lower centres of the ani- 

::.:--. :aaaa_ ~"i::"- :-.\::. r il:n±r: :1a e ar_:anal :a_-:;a:: raila 

iraaarrs ii :1a a :::.:aa. t :. ; r -« vr_£ ::-?::.-: \ :.- 'a:ases 

develop. Few men have not paid so much attention to 

::\- :. t" 7 : _: '/.t;." :: '.:.-. .:~-: iiasaiiaaai ye: :1a a.: aaaa. 

as a race has done so is proved by the man y wais and 

physical encounters they have indulged in for pleasure. 

Among monogamic animals the difference in size 

zer^r-rn '.:.-. .- ii -li-ala: .:.:: aiaa ;.\_/ axlyg-aaaa as ~ye- 

oes the male is considerably larger and coarser than the 



It is through natural selection that the higher mental 

:a:...a.t_ ; aiaa :ia± _ :.a. iiiialarars ria.Tr :ea aiayaiaea 
Intelligent sympathy is said to be the foundation of a 

r ; i soaiil saraiiraai la a :a :: :hr : " : iivt7zi~z 
lines :: Eenaaal atr: ".a;: a:: : - iai rc:-i::y r;:ti : la. 
- -aana. narea:: ii :■ a served :a- a:-a:-: ::::;i:y :: aes::~ 
aare aa. a a:a-a:i : a. : 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

THE SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION OF HUMANITY 1 

Contents. — The Recognition of God the Father, of God the Son and of God the 
Mother. — Reform in Laws and Words move Slowly. — Universal Religion. — 
The Evolution of the Bible. — Growth of Religions. — The First Forms of 
Belief. — Monotheism, Duotheism and Triotheism. — The Brahma-Somaj Society. 
— The Fallacy of the Idea that there is no Substance but Matter. — The Spiritual 
Body a Substantial Body. — Death is a Resurrection. — " Heaven " and " Hell " 
.Real Conditions. — The Bible the Source and Record of the Highest Civiliza- 
tion. — Science verifies the Bible. — Higher Criticisms. — The Meaning of Sac- 
rifice. — The Universal Truth of Christ's Teachings. 

According to historical records, the first spiritual 
evolution of humanity was the recognition of a Cre- 
ator, — the Father God ; the second the recognition of 
Christ, — the Child God ; and the third spiritual evolution 
w r as the recognition of the Holy Spirit, — the Mother 
God. God the Father controls the evolution of phys- 
ical worlds ; God the Mother controls the evolution of 
wisdom ; God the Christ demonstrates the just process 
and bearing of these laws. Even the divine Family 
cannot truly reveal or demonstrate divine laws to the 
human family until human intelligence has advanced 
sufficiently to comprehend these laws. 

There are limitations and restrictions in human law, 
and there are also limitations in human words; there- 
fore reform in law and words always moves along more 
slowly than reform in ideas. Many claim that the 
simple name " Father " is enough, yet they seem un- 

1 Gleams of truths from all religions. 

30 5 



306 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

conscious that there is in their idea of the Deity a lack 
of something which is to be desired. 

Does one figure, drawn from a single human relation, 
cover the whole ground? Is there no Mother God? 
The human mother affirms there is, as the human 
father says there is a Father God. It satisfies the mind 
of the human mother, as the human father's and child's 
minds are satisfied, to know that they are the special 
care of infinite minds. This sense of need testifies to 
the natural desire of the human soul to have before it 
some manifestation of the unseen, to behold a personal 
God. It is not an effort to get away from God, but to 
get nearer to God. 

The religion of the future will be universal in every 
sense. The truths of the Bible have been handed 
down from the remotest ages, therefore the Bible be- 
longs to every age, nation, race and sex. The Bible 
has evolved as the human race has evolved. 

The spiritual truths of the Old Testament are seen 
advancing through the centuries, and each period of 
biblical literature in its unfolding is preparing the way 
for the full revelation in the New Testament. The 
imperfection, incompleteness, and inadequacy of some 
of the statements of the Old Testament as to religion, 
morals, and doctrines were originated and promulgated 
by a few patriarchs in order to excuse their own de- 
fects and to advance their own ideas; therefore they 
imposed erroneous ideas upon the human race as divine 
revelations. The sacred books of the world are neces- 
sarily varied in character and contents. They spring 
from very different grades of development; they were 



THE SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION OF HUMANITY 307 

written at different times, and they were born of dif- 
ferent conditions. Race, climate, social circumstances, 
and the conflict of opposing religious tendencies, forced 
into action and reaction by historical relations, — these 
and a thousand other conditions contribute to mould 
these differences. 

The teachings of Brahma form perhaps the oldest 
religion. Then came Gautama Buddha, the reformer 
of Brahmanism. A thousand years later Mohammed 
spread the doctrines of Islam, using as a means not 
love for humanity, but the sword. 

Zoroastrianism or Parseeism — by whatever name the 
system may be called — is a monotheistic form of re- 
ligion. It teaches the existence of one God, known as 
Mazda, Ahura, or Ahura-Mazda, the last form being the 
form that is most commonly met with in the later 
writings of the Zend-Avesta. 

Zoroaster rejected from his writings the word 
"daeva," a very ancient Aryan word for God, derived 
from the Aryan root "div," to shine. Most of the 
western nations which separated from the parent Aryan 
stock took with them this word in one form or another 
for the name of their God. 1 Thus the Greeks called 
their God, Zeus ; the Romans, Deus ; the Germans. 
Tius ; the Lithuanians, Diewas, and so on. The Indian 
and the Aryan branches had the word " daeva." 

When the early Iranians saw that the belief of the 
people was tending to Polytheism, and that the sacred 

1 The Sanscrit form, " dyans pittar," literally "heaven father," is the same as 
the Latin Jupiter. The name of the third day of the week, derived from the 
Norse god Tuisco, also identical with " deus." 



30S WOMAN AND DISEASE 

word " daeva " instead of being used for God alone, was 
being used for many created objects, they stamped the 
word as unfit for the name of God, and rejected it alto- 
gether from the Zend-Avesta. 

Christians have found the untutored men of the 
forest ready to understand in regard to God the infinite 
Spirit and Father, but doubtful of the character of the 
Son of God. Men could not recognize the Child God ; 
children were the first to comprehend and teach his 
truths. 

Races of people not only differ in naming the gods 
they worship, but they differ in the number they 
worship. Probably the first form of religious belief was 
a rude form of Monotheism, or worship of one God, 
and was a feeling of reverence and fear for the unseen 
forces of nature. Later on, as intellects evolved, every- 
thing that manifested an unseen force became an object 
of worship, and as a result the idea of Polytheism, or 
the worship of many gods, gradually grew. With still 
increasing developments of the mind and a growing 
knowledge of the ideas of good and evil, the gods were 
separated into two classes, the good and the bad, and 
thus there evolved dualistic religions. 

As monotheistic religion is the earliest human con- 
ception of God as a Father, modern Duotheism is the 
evolution of monotheistic ideas into the recognition of 
the Son of God. Triotheism evolves the recognition 
of the Father, the Child, and the Mother as the true 
personalities of the Godhead. Christ teaches that each 
member of the divine and the human family is an 
absolute individual, and that the ideal human family 



THE SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION OE HUMANITY 3O9 

should be monogamic; therefore there can be but one 
true marriage for both man and woman. 

In all the ancient religions there can be found some 
faint trace of the recognition of the divine Mother, as 
on the walls of the most ancient temples of Egypt are 
seen the goddess Mother and Child ; the same picture 
is veiled behind Chinese altars, consecrated in Druid 
groves, and glorified in Christian churches ; in all these 
the underlying thought is the same, that there exists a 
Mother God for humanity; although none of these 
faiths, bodies of laws, institutions or organizations, 
whether Greek, Hindoo, Hebrew, or Orthodox creeds 
give the human mother an equal place with the human 
father, or truly recognize the divine Mother as one 
person of the divine Trinity, although the followers of 
Buddhism and Toaism once distinguished the divine 
Father and Mother from the human father and mother. 

Now the ideas concerning the divine and the human 
trinities are becoming more intelligent, as the races 
of men and women are becoming more spiritually 
enlightened. The Mother God as the Holy Spirit is 
ever teaching the truth to all people, and as soon as 
they are capable of comprehending such truth they all 
with one accord will exclaim, O, thou divine Mother, 
Author of wisdom and Instructor of truth, we will 
worship thee! The holy Scriptures teach that where 
two or three are gathered together to study divine laws, 
the Shekmah, the Mother God, instructs them. 

The great progress in truth of the Brahma-Somaj 
Society was due to the recognition of the Mother God, 
expressed thus: "We humbly believe that the world has 



310 WOMAN AXD DISEASE 

yet to understand and realize, as it never has realized in 
the past, the tender and loving relationship that exists 
between mankind and its supreme, universal, divine 
Mother. Words cannot describe, hearts cannot con- 
ceive of the tender and self-sacrificing love of a human 
mother. Of all human relations, the relation of mother 
to her children is the most sacred. And yet our frail 
human mother is nothing in comparison with the divine 
Mother, who is our primal source of purity, of mercy 
and of wisdom." 

The more just and noble our ideas concerning the 
divine Family, the more pure and true will be our ideas 
concerning human parents, the brotherhood of man and 
the sisterhood of woman. When once humanity realizes 
that God is our Father and our Mother, all the intricate 
problems of theology, all the puzzling quibbles of church 
government, of home and nation, all the quarrels and 
wranglings of the so-called religious world, will be solved 
and settled. 

The Brahma-Somaj Society holds that a vivid realiza- 
tion of the motherhood of God is the only solution of 
the intricate problems and differences in the religious 
world. They pray thus: "May the universal Mother 
grant us all her blessings to understand and appreciate 
her sweet relationship to the vast family of mankind ; 
may we approach thy footstool in the spirit of thy hum- 
ble and obedient children." 

The Buddhists say concerning the Trinity: "One in 
nation and three in division " ; the Toaists write con- 
cerning the " three pure Ones in Unity"; and what the 
Christians say concerning the " Trinity in Unity and the 




THE SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION OF HUMANITY 31 I 

Godhead of Three Persons," seems to present a sub- 
stantial agreement. But the egoism and bigotry of 
the male Pharisee caused the absorption of the divine 
Trinity and humanity into the fatherhood of God and 
the brotherhood of man, which standing alone is an 
"empty phrase." 

As to the personality and individuality of each mem- 
ber of the divine Trinity, do they not exist so that spirit- 
ual eyes may behold them ? Is it not a gross fallacy of 
the senses that there is no substance but matter, nothing 
substantial but what is material ? Are not the divine 
Creators of all things substantial? Can omnipotence be 
attributed to that which has no substance and no form ? 
Is such an existence conceivable ? 

Science has demonstrated the fact that the ether 
which binds the planets together as with an iron hand, 
while firm and solid, is infinitely elastic, and a perfect 
medium for the transmission of vibrations, whether such 
vibrations are caused by physical or mental forces. 

The vibrations which constitute light come to us from 
the sun in eight minutes, traveling at the rate of one 
hundred and eighty thousand miles a second ; and it is 
even possible to produce waves moving at this enormous 
velocity by electrical means. A pulsation of electricity 
causes an ether wave just as in the telephone the move- 
ment of infinitely small ether waves produces speech. 

The waves produced by ether disturbances spread out 
into space, radiating farther and farther in gigantic cir- 
cles, until swallowed up in its immensity like ripples on 
the ocean. This ethereal material is not visible, yet 
we know that it does exist, because of sound and other 



312 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

various manifestation made when its current is partially 
obstructed. Therefore we must know that our God is 
substantial, and that the human soul is substantial ; if 
there is a spiritual substance, such substance must be 
the world wherein the soul is eternally to dwell. 

" It is the reality of the spiritual world that makes this 
world real, just as it is the reality of the soul that makes 
the human body a reality and a possibility. As there 
could be no body without the individual life which in- 
habits the body, there could be no natural world without 
the spiritual world. It is not rational to believe that the 
body which the soul briefly inhabits, and which is then 
dissolved, is more substantial than the soul itself, which 
endures forever." 

The human, subjective or spiritual body is not some- 
thing formless, vague or shadowy, but is itself the very 
being which inhabits the physical form ; then when the 
spiritual form leaves the body, it must inhabit a substan- 
tial and very real world. 

If we read the story of the resurrection of Christ we 
shall see in it a type of every other resurrection that is 
to follow; then the life to come cannot be a bodiless 
existence, as nature knows no bodiless existence ; every- 
thing that lives clothes itself in some form of more or 
less fine matter, and matter of some sort clothes all 
individual life ; therefore in heaven the human family 
will behold the divine Family as three separate beings, 
perfect in purity and sublimity. As it is the pure in 
heart who see God, those who enter heaven must have 
evolved into purity of heart after they leave this earth, 
as it does not seem possible that any human soul is fitted 



THE SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION OF HUMANITY 313 

to enter heaven when they leave this earth. Although 
Christ said to the thief on the cross, " Today thou shalt 
be with me in paradise," Christ surely did not mean 
heaven ; the repentant thief entered a happy existence, 
— not heaven, until thoroughly pure in heart, until refin- 
ing processes entirely remove the dross, not only of the 
thief, but of every other human being who has lived on 
the earth. 

We may be sure that those who have left this world 
live still, not merely in some disembodied existence, 
but that they have bodies of their own; not some en- 
tirely new body, else the continuity of their lives is 
broken. It is an absolute necessity in the life beyond 
that personal identity shall continue, which means that 
in some way there shall be a continuance of that which 
is truly vital and essential in our present existence. 
This ideal we see illumined in the stories of the risen 
Christ. 

At the touch of death the outer human body falls 
away and the entire spiritual body is freed for a new 
life. It may draw around itself, from the body which 
it leaves or from the spiritual elements in the environ- 
ment, either the elements of a new and finer material 
body, or in ways of which we cannot even dream, the 
mystery of being clothed upon may accomplish itself. 

At the moment of death it seems that the spiritual 
being leaves the human body ; when freed from its 
earthly cage the soul passes on to another existence 
just suited to its spiritual development ; therefore every 
death is a resurrection. Not only are other worlds sub- 
stantial, but heaven is substantial ; it must be a world 



314 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

of surpassing loveliness and beauty. Is it reasonable 
that this material world, where nature spreads for every 
sense a feast to gratify every exalted faculty of the 
soul, should be so full of life and beauty, and not the 
other worlds, where the soul is to evolve forever? 

In the life of the future worlds the same laws of life 
and happiness govern that govern here, because there 
exist divine laws for all worlds. Human beings are 
social beings, and everywhere in other worlds, as in 
this, they desire and seek the companionship of those 
who are of similar spiritual quality; they are thus 
mutually associated by spiritual affinity. Therefore 
the evil and the good become entirely separated into 
distinct societies. These various societies and com- 
munities of the good thus associated constitute heaven, 
and those of the evil constitute hell ; not by an arbitrary 
judgment of an angry God, but of voluntary choice 
by the perfect and unhindered operation of the law of 
the human will, which leads human beings to prefer 
and seek the companionship of those most congenial 
to themselves. 

As regards permanency of the state of those who by 
established evil habits have been determined in living 
evil lives, it is hot God's will, but their own will. Christ 
taught that the divine Parents are ever gracious and 
full of compassion, and that his own mission to earth 
was to lead the human family from their evil ways into 
the way of life. Some yield to his divine entreaties, 
others will not, yet he still says to such as he said to 
those of Jerusalem: How often would I have gathered 
thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her 



THE SPIRITUAL K VOLUTION OF HUMANITY 



5 l 3 



chickens under her wings, but ye would not. There 
is no moment in this or in the future life when the 
infinite mercies of the divine Family would not that 
the evil should turn from their evil ways, and live 
virtuous, upright and happy lives. They will not in 
that world for the same reason that they will not in 
this, because they would rather associate with the evil 
than with the good. 

Yet in future worlds the evil may change their char- 
acter as the Ethiopians change their color and the 
leopards change their spots, by long continued effort 
in a different environment. Thus may the evil become 
good by a transformation of character, yet they cannot 
enter heaven until that transformation is completed, as 
the life of heaven is the life of the pure. 

The real worth of the Bible results from the fact that 
it and it alone contains the record of the life, teachings 
and death of Him who spake as never man spake, 
whose sinlessness forbids His possible classification 
with the animal man. In the next place the Bible con- 
tains the highest religious and ethical ideas known 
to humanity, a coherent system of ethics and theology, 
and an implied philosophy surpassing that of any other 
system known to any other age of the world. Its worth 
consists also in its being the chief source of the highest 
civilization. 

Max Muller asserts that all other so-called sacred 
books taken together cannot for an instant compare 
with Christ's holy Scriptures, in which Christ teaches 
the true principle by which we may judge the ethics 
of the Old Testament. He repealed the Mosaic law of 



3 J 6 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

divorce when he said : Moses, for your hardness of 
heart suffered you to put away your wives ; but from 
the beginning it hath not been s:. In other words, 
the Mosaic law was not in accord with the original 
institution of marriage, nor was it of the real mind and 
will of the divine Parents who permitted for a season 
unjust laws to continue because of the low state of 
humanity, in some ::— - sc ~rcely an evolution higher 
than the bro:-~ After Christ came to the world unjust 
laws were repealed forever, because the human family 
had then progressed sufficiently to comprehend the 
; :o:o- :: :oese '_;.—?. 

'The Bible is not a book that has been made, it is 
one that has grown; it is no longer a mere book, nor 
a compendium of doctrines, but a nursery of growing 
truths. Like the earth it has successive strata, valleys 
hilltops and atmosphere, rivers that are flowing still, 
here and there a place that is a desert, and fossils, whose 
crude forms are stepping-stones to higher things. It 
teaches the evolution of creation, and that law is not the 
cause of the order of the world, but the expression of 
it; so far as laws being the origin of the world, it is one 
of the chief things whose origin has to be accounted 
for. The truths of the Bible and scientific truth have 
made it impossible for humanity to worship any other 
::e:::es than the divine Trinity. The sun, moon and 
stars have been found out; no one can worship them 
any more. By searching, humanity discovered exact 
laws which proved that two divine Minds originate and 
adjust all s::entific laws of physical and spiritual worlds. 
All are obliged to admit that there are errors in the 



THE SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION OF HUMANITY 317 

Bible concerning astronomy, zoology, botany and an- 
thropology ; yet these errors are of human origin. If 
all concede that the ancient world could not have com- 
prehended physical laws which are recognized today, 
how could they have been kept from misstatements and 
errors concerning spiritual laws which in this century 
are being discovered ? 

There seems to be a divine purpose that the recorded 
truths of all Bibles of the world shall continue as worthy 
and reliable teachings for all nations. These truths 
educate humanity, so long as instructors make no mis- 
takes in translating them. The higher or literary criti- 
cisms of the holy Scriptures have done inestimable 
work in the removal of traditional errors from the sacred 
books, so that truths may be studied in their real struc- 
ture and character. 

The higher critics have recognized faults of grammar, 
of rhetoric, and of logic, in both the Hebrew and Chris- 
tian Scriptures. 1 Biblical authors used the language 
with which they were familiar, some of them classic 
Hebrew, others of them dialectic Hebrew. Some of 
them had good prose style, others of them were dull, 
tedious, and pedantic. Some of them were poets of the 
highest rank, others of them wrote such inferior verse 
that one is surprised that they did not use prose. Others 
labored with and eventually delivered it in a crude and 

1 " It is well to remember that in spite of all the rigid search to which religions 
have been subjected, the central ideas that form its foundation have never been 
shaken. The stupendous superstructure of human theology may have been, and 
undoubtedly has been, shattered; the teachings of the Christ, on the contrary, after 
two thousand years stand forth as in fire. They are the foundation stones of mod- 
ern civilization." — Jacques W. Redway, F. K. G. S. 



; : 5 WOMAN AMD DISEASE 

undeveloped form, and in a loose, obscure and uncon- 
vincing manner. Some of them reasoned clearly, pro- 
foundly and convincingly, and presented the truth like 
intuitions of light. 

All these matters belong to the manner and method 
of their instructors. Errors in these formal things do 
not impair the truths which cause a continuous improve- 
ment of the human family. One learns sooner or later 
in life that to know the truth is not always agreeable ; 
nevertheless, to know the truth is absolutely necessary 
for our future happiness. As pain is sometimes needed 
as a warning to preserve from greater pain, so the les- 
sons recorded in the Bible of the terrible destruction of 
different races show that this was necessary in order to 
develop a superior race of people. 

Although the degradation of the human race has 
been caused by disobedience to divine laws, all human 
beings who in the spirit of pity and mercy aid the de- 
graded in reaching normal conditions will develop for 
themselves individual strength, and all that is implied 
in that expression, strength of character. 

To the degenerate human being suffering tends to 
cause a regret for sins committed, and in time an 
abhorrence of evil; in no other way could the human 
family be regenerated than by passing through mental 
conflicts which act as purifying fire to burn the dross. 
A pure, noble mind is evolved by striving to under- 
stand divine laws, and by an intelligent subjection of 
the human will to these laws; such cultivation results 
in the development of normal human beings; there- 
fore regeneration could not have been bestowed by a 



THE SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION OE HUMANITY 319 

creative fiat. The divine Family can have no pleasure 
in witnessing suffering, or the sacrificing of animals, 
or in smoking altars. Wisdom teaches that all degra- 
dations are the results of violating just laws; that the 
meaning of the sacrifice which Christ made was to 
teach humanity obedience to divine laws, and that every 
human being must sacrifice the animal nature to evolve 
into higher conditions. 

The immoral records of civilized people today are 
not excusable in the light of the moral character of 
Christ's teachings, but when considering the degraded 
condition of the people of the Old Testament times 
we may understand that they were not then capable of 
comprehending scientific revelations of divine truths, 
such as the human family are now understanding, — 
truths that are leading upward with steady and rapid prog- 
ress, while breaking the fetters of enslaved humanity. 

Christian nations are beginning to understand that 
the Father of all fathers and the Mother of all mothers 
have granted all human children to be sovereigns in 
their own rights ; that all should have their appropriate 
share of blessings, of education, and share equally in the 
work for the evolution of life existing upon the earth. 

One part of the world after another has been the 
camping-ground for humanity, until at last America 
seems to be. divinely appointed the world's kindergarten. 
Its blessings will be free to all, to comfort the weary and 
free the oppressed, where all may learn of the divine 
Child — Christ the Saviour, and his divine Parents, who 
grant to all human beings freedom of thought, freedom 
to consult personal consciences concerning the great 



320 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

problems of life, and to decide how, when and where 
they will worship. 

As the best thought of the world is toward Christ, all 
that is best in humanity is due to his example ; all who 
are w r eary of sin and sorrow are yearning for that which 
the world cannot give — that peace which passeth all 
understanding — that peace which Christ brought to 
humanity, and of which he assured each and all when 
he said : " Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy 
laden, and I will give you rest ; take my yoke upon you, 
and learn of me ; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and 
ye shall find rest unto your souls ; for my yoke is easy, 
and my burden is light." 

The soul cannot express its gratitude and gladness 
when realizing such peace. Christ's teaching does not 
annihilate individual life, but promises abundant reward 
for that which each has accomplished for the benefit of 
life upon the earth. 

The life of this world is a period of character build- 
ing; whether it be one of evil or of good, the works 
done and records made will follow each and will be 
rewarded accordingly. The teachings of Christ bring 
to the world health for the physical and the spiritual 
bodies, which insures the absolute harmony of the 
human wills with the divine wills. 

Christ's Christianity is a conservative power that 
resists all decay ; it never grows old ; it never loses its 
efficiency to advance any community in civilized life. 
There is, indeed, nothing more wonderful in the history 
of the human race than the way in which Christ's teach- 
ings have traversed the lapse of ages, developing in 



THE SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION OF HUMANITY 32 1 

humanity new strength, and with each advance of civi- 
lization infusing its beneficent influence into every 
sphere of thought and action of the entire world; 
therefore Christianity is replacing Judaism and all other 
isms ; but before it can wipe them away, their true rela- 
tion must be shown. Instead of Christians becoming 
Brahmins, Mohammedans and Jews, Brahmins, Moham- 
medans, Jews and so-called Christians are all rising to a 
higher conception of Christ. 

The christianization of the world is the greatest mar- 
vel of history. Christ's Christianity is becoming the 
true religion for the whole world. Humanity is realiz- 
ing that the way to salvation is not in creed and greed, 
but in being just; that altruism, instead of egoism, is 
the law of social, moral and spiritual health. Humanity 
is being educated into these broader principles of relig- 
ion and social life ; and thus will ignorance, poverty and 
vice disappear when the world recognizes that Christian- 
ity is exceedingly real, substantial and vital — a religion 
for all life. 

One of the most important truths of the Christian 
religion is that Jehovah-Elohim, the Father and Mother 
God, so loved the world that they gave their only be- 
gotten Son, the Christ-child, as a gift to the world ; that 
to obey the laws of the divine Parents and faith in the 
divine Son are necessary for the salvation or evolution 
of each human being. Repentance means ceasing to 
do evil and beginning to do right, and faith in the 
forgiveness of the divine Trinity. The forgiveness 
which the divine Parents offer is Christ their Son as a 
model for every human being. 



CM Zhiist Rea an said hatevei may be the si • 

prises of the future, Jesus be surpassed His 

wt rship wiD gr : yon g without aeasi r AD ag e s 
: :"_aim that i .: ng the sons ::' men there is none 
g ater than Jesus 
Grttr.e :ht father :: the modern school of high : 
hire in Mie :: his last utterances t essed the con- 
tion that Ihe i :\: matter how muc 

t in inteDectua] :ulture and the extent and 
J e | : h : : : h e k uowle : ge : : nature, will never transcend 
the high moral cv tune :: Christianity as it shines 
glows in Christ's gc spels. 

Napoleon the jrfeat ieclared: *' I search in vain in 
story :; find me equal to Jesus Hirist :>r amthing 
which :;.:: approach his gospel Neitfae ::or 

humanity nor the ages ooi nature afford me 
which I am able :: compare or by which to Explain .: 

As all natic is Ic uot pass Through the same stages 
:: spiritual eve . :. . 1 within the same period :: ti le 
sc nations as weD as human beings ~zi. The devel- 
lent :: me is ::" a slow growth, :: another more 

ft S me people seem t i stat ary for a 

: there ; . . . - th Each sent - But 

in so far as t Lave each consciously reached ihe same 

mc relation* ave attained the s ame sight, the 

- iths they have g; nee have the sai ne vitalit 

"Thestreai . : lifeu issues forth from the gospel 

flooding jack be the Went whence it took ts 

this world wiU ere r leal all those 

wonderlands: : »ring salvation to the grc IgE 

!Ople of the East, of i - : i eve been t 

most eagt - . . rch arte - d." 



THE SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION OF HUMANITY 323 

In so far as each soul desires a God, the reverence, 
adoration, and trust which constitutes the moral and 
spiritual elements of their faiths, they are in fact iden- 
tical through every variety of creed. They may be 
more or less intelligent, more or less crude and con- 
fused, but in substance they are the same — a desire to 
know a personal God; yet divine intelligence under- 
stands all human life and recognizes in all sacred his- 
tories that which is best in beauty, goodness and truth. 
Divine truth, like a mighty river, is ever flowing, and as 
it passes it is refreshing humanity on this side and that. 

The truths comprehended concerning the divine and 
the human trinities, the relations of Christ's mission to 
the world, the recognition of the individuality of the 
Holy Spirit, are attracting the attention of the thought- 
ful, and " lines of new thought are already at the sug- 
gestive stage." 

Today scholars of all nations accept the ancient 
truth of the Hebrew religion, that Jehovah-Elohim, 
meaning the Father and the Mother God, created the 
heavens and the earth, and also the modern truths of 
other races ; that human progress must include progress 
in recognizing each member of the divine Trinity and 
each member of the human trinity. 

Christ first taught men truths concerning his divine 
Father, as he well knew their ideas were false concern- 
ing God as King and Lord, who was not known even 
as "Our Father who art in heaven" to them; Christ 
also knew that all humanity must be regenerated by a 
spiritual birth before they could understand that they 
should also say " Our Mother who art in heaven." 



324 WOMAN AND DISEASE 

If Christ's speech was silver, his silence was gold. 
He simply ignored the superiority of rank, class, race 
and sex. He said nothing about there being any differ- 
ence between manly virtues and womanly virtues, but 
said: "Blessed are the pure in heart: Blessed are the 
meek: Blessed are the merciful." 

Women are now recognizing this essential truth : 
that the sacrifice of the divine Son made possible the 
divine conception of human suffering, and that only 
the divine Mother can understand the anguish of 
human mothers when the powers of evil destroy their 
children. 

In Christ, the son of the divine and human parents, 
is manifested the divine regard for all races, ages, sexes, 
capacities and temperaments; in Christ's human nature 
is represented all race-marks: Hamitic fearlessness. 
Semitic reverence, Japhetic culture. His beatitudes 
are his precepts of reconciliation, non-resistance, and 
love of enemies. He bids each use the plural ''our," 
"we," "us," in prayer, and to pray in secret. Christ 
said : " All authority has been given unto me in heaven 
and on earth. Go ye, therefore, into all the world, 
preach the gospel to every creature and to all nations, 
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the 
Son and of the Mother God." 



ERRATA. 

Page 4, line 5. for Da"th read Daath. 

Plate II. for "B, Optic nerve" read "B Optic Thalamus 11 

Page 36. line 4. for "ganglia" read "nerves." 

Plate IV for "i. Uterus" read "I, Ureter." 

Page 74. line 20, for "scma liquid" read "semi liquid" 

Page 138, foot note, for "<t primary sore; b secondary sore" read "pri- 
mary sores on body and extremities ; secondary 
sores onhead, face and left shoulder." 

Page 157, line 2, for Helen Goodwins" read "Helen Gardner's." 

Page 167. line 12, 13 for "specie" read "species." 

Page 199. line 3, for "ganglis" read "ganglia" 

Page 203. line 6. for "persistent" read "persistently." 

Page 208, line 2 from bottom, for "or" read "are" 

Page 210, line 14, omit "or" 

Page 227. line 25. for "psychical" read "physical" 

Page 232, line 25. insert "the" before work. 

Page 242. line 28, for "Senual" read "Sensual." 

Page 247, line 9, for "he" read "the" 

Page 247, line 12, for "has" read "have" 

Page 251, line 11, for "while" read "By" 

Page 251, line 12, omit "which" 

Page 251. line 23. for "are a class" read "is a class" 

Page 269, line 19, for " should an accident occur" read if an accident 

should occur." 

Page 276, line 12, for "male cell" read "ovum" 

Page 276, line 14. for "parent cell belong" read "parent's cells belong" 

Page 288, line 21, insert "was" after princess. 

Page 290, line 6, drop "who" after American, 

Page 290, last line, insert "was" after Stevens. 

Page 291, line 10, insert "was" after Stowe. 

Page 291, line 11, omit "which was" 

Page 291, line 13, insert "is" after Stanton. 

Page 291, line 15, insert "in which" after work, 

Page 291, line 16, omit "in." 

Page 291, line 30, insert ";" after etc. 

Page 299, last line, for "does not go" read "goes." 

Page 300, line 14, for "absolute" read "absolutely." 

Page 304, line 6, for "Few" read "A few." 

Page 304, line 9, insert "in which" after encounters: in same line omit 

"in" after indulged. 
Page 314, second paragraph should end with quotation mark. 
Page 322, line 1, for "Reman" read "Renan." 
Page 322, line 17, for "by" read "with." 



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